#I would say the most in terms of learning more about Dain

[reginrokkr]

𝐂𝐗𝐕𝐈𝐈𝐈𝐋. Given that the post will get sufficiently long, this will be considered as the part two out of three to conclude the AQ: Requiem of the Echoing Depths. If you want to check the first part, see here!

✦ It's really telling of Halfdan that, in a situation where he's seeing other Black Serpent Knights being defeated by Dain and Aether, not only he wouldn't jump to fight as the first instinct to kick in might be that of helping those who he spent time the longest, but that he would remember Dain despite lacking self-awareness, nothing short of a miracle as per Dain's private musings wondering how he could retain that fragment of self-awareness without "it".

It does make me wonder if they had a very strong bond in the past, that he had a strong sense of duty towards Dain as his captain or both in order for those feelings, even if in memory just that of camaraderie, to transcend 500 years and later on show him around and basically sparing him the suffering of the amplification device. The implications of a strong trust in Dain and not in Abyss Order members of around, if some of those who were present in the Nameless City were Khaenri'ahns despite more than likely recognizing them as fellow citizens are really high and, once again, I'm touched at the thought that Dain was so dearly loved in Khaenri'ah before tragedy struck.

✧ Although very briefly, there is another display of strength Dain shows in dispelling the abyssal energy that surrounds the city with the power he possesses, clearly contrary to the abyssal energy. Given his words regarding a power from beyond and the highly possible chances that what he uses is equally a power from beyond, it's really curious to think that the power of the Abyss and Forbidden Knowledge are powers from beyond the world of Teyvat too.

✦ The more I watch again into the AQs he participates in, the more I'm convinced that at first the small drops of knowledge he shares that aren't as "bombastic" as others are just as important. For instance, that Dain would recognize the civilization ruins of the Nameless City as something even more ancient than Khaenri'ah is (I won't mention that he can tell they resemble to some extent because it's enough to be acquainted with Khaenri'ah to know, not necessarily the other too). And while the fact that he narrates the miscellanies can be treated as canon or not, I do firmly believe that it was deliberate and to say that he does, in fact, possess all of that knowledge.

✧ Another touching thing of importance in this quest is the will of the Black Serpent Knights to keep protecting the Khaenri'ahn civilians (now hilichurls) and, without a doubt, under Halfdan's orders. Even if one were to argue that they are doing what Halfdan is ordering them, there are those whose dialogue texts denote that they agree with the Abyss Order's ways, so those who have been protecting the hilichurls must also have some degree of self-awareness. The fact that Dain's last order too, besides the strong feelings not only Halfdan but potentially other people under his wing in terms of military may have, of protecting everyone no matter if poor or rich transcended for so long under miraculous descriptors as Dain would put it... it really touches my heartstrings.

✦ ◜I have lived with this curse for 500 years, and I have been fully conscious the entire time... Suffice to say, no one understands the curse like I do. It is a way of branding us at the level of the fate of the world itself. When a god applies a curse, it takes effect at a higher level of reality than the person themselves. Even now, I can feel the curse slowly permeating my entire being, becoming part of me, slowly but surely replacing me. Perhaps it may be possible to suppress the corrosive effect of the curse for a time, but cleansing it entirely... Consider it tantamount to burning away an integral part of your body. It is not a process that one could hope to survive.◞

Before jumping into more headcanon territory for this, which I keep in high regard as part of my Dain's background, I have to say that there is something about the small explanation he makes in the bolded quote that rises the question as to how... much he truly knows and if it's possible to get this solely from Irminsul or something else (I don't remove the possibility of his own experiences too, of course). Mainly because in order to enter into a topic of levels of fate and levels of reality and being aware that people are on a lower one than the curse doesn't seem like the easiest thing to learn about, even less to process and be this calm when talking about it.

Now, about what follows next: I'm a firm believer that in his moments of darkness, Dain did try to find ways to rid himself of the curse and when he did find some glimmers of hope that help him soothe the curse, that he reached to extreme levels which, of course, would lead to extreme pain (if we go even darker, I would say that if he wanted to test his limits and truly see for himself if he can die or not, that he'd attempt this for that reason too, once again, in a moment of uttermost darkness in his life) as seen later on by yours truly the amplification device. I'm inclined to believe that he's speaking out of pure experience here and, since he isn't any longer in such a frail state of mind as he must've been in the early moments of the Cataclysm and after Khaenri'ah's destruction, that he's able to talk about it so matter-of-factly.

[gold-rhine]

3.5 spoilers

ok, so i’ve thought somewhat about how much of existing kaeya’s lore hoyo would be retconning by making him not know he’s from abyss order bloodline and i think the most logical way i can reconcile all of the existing in game drops and the 3.5 dialogue is that kaeya knew he was from khaenriah, but was raised to believe Alberich clan are the regents of khaenriah, without being told of the abyss order connection. like i don’t think they’re retconning him knowing anything at all

bc like i can understand that things change in long-term projects, so if it was only the starting game lore, it’d be one thing. but hidden strife didn’t happen that long ago and based on the hidden strife alone kaeya’s dad called Alberich bloodline “regents of khaenriah” and casually referred to king Irmin, which implies Kaeya had at least basic grasp of khaenriah’s history and politics. this also tracks with his voice lines about Fischl and being descendant of lost royalty. so like, i believe he still Knows Shit and much more than he lets on, but maybe not very systematically.

but also now that I think about it, if I was dad!Alberich and i was preparing my son to plant him in Mond’s family, I would probs not tell him “hey sweetie, you and daddy are from the long proud line of the founders of the Evil Order. Yeah, you know, the Evil Order, which does Terrible Things, that’s us!” and instead present yourself as the noble regents, who picked up the pieces after royals fucked the country up, which like based on what we’ve seen of Chlothar, they’d probably sincerely see like this. this lets Alberichs to claim Khaenriah as both their legacy and responsibility, and it’s better to tell small kid he has a duty to his country, for which he is the last hope, instead of being like “cutiepie, one day when you grow up, you will be an important part of the Nefarious Crochet of Destiny, which our Evil Order has been planning for generations”

that would explain how he didn’t know about the abyss connection, but still picked up enough of lore and hints, which explains him referencing “sinners” in his voiceline about khaenriah frex. like after what we’ve learned in this archon quest, alberichs probably used “sinners” a lot in reference to themselves and khaenriah, so kaeya could catch a lot of religious shit and ideology, without knowing it’s connected to abyss order, bc like. this whole time we didn’t know shit fuck about sinner too! even Dain didn’t know about it and he was abyss sibling’s boyfriend. it’s a pretty well-hidden shit.

like kaeya obv never was supposed to know what his “mission” was, since even old mona’s voice line says “he thinks he made a clean break with the past”. which would very well lead to his state of anxiety, where he knew he’s planted in mond with *some* purpose, not knowing what that purpose it is and having to keep a secret that he was planted here strategically, but also since he was a smart kid who picked up enough to get Bad Vibes, feel preemptively guilty that MAYBE he’s a living timebomb which will be used against the country he grew to love, including his adopted family, but also not being able to tell so to the said adopted family bc he was raised to believe he has duty to his homeland as it’s last hope. like i think this uncertainty checks out better with his characterization from the start than being certain you’re from the Evil Order the whole time.

[ramuneempiremtl]

Slave-kun's Happy Life in Another World: Chapter 20

It seemed like they were talking about whether or not to teach me magic. They said the way they teach would change depending on how much control I could have.

Magic training apparently has stages. First, activation, then control, then type, and then scale… that's how they train.

So, in my case, I can skip the activation and control parts.

"How about not using the regular service when returning to the royal capital and walking back instead? You can do physical training and magic practice on the way, and you can also get training in gathering and camping."

"That's a good idea. I wanted to collect some medicinal herbs."

"That's fine, right? We don't have to hurry back."

"Then let's finish this request properly."

Oh, I have a feeling it's going to be fun.

I'd like to learn a lot of things and make myself useful.

"So, Owl. Do you have any magic you can use other than water and purification right now?"

I tilted my head and thought about it. Hmm, I don't think so.

But magic is about using magic power to materialize what you imagine, so I feel like I could do anything to some extent.

"I don't know… Then let's go with that."

"That?"

"The thing you think is the easiest and most convenient for you. Imagine it and activate it. Oh, and keep the scale very small. Like ignition or sending wind."

The easiest and most convenient. I wonder what it is.

After thinking for a while, I turned my palm upward. A tingling sensation ran through me, and sparks flashed. There was a crackling sound.

Good, I activated it successfully.

Electricity.

When it comes to convenience, this is definitely it.

"W-what, lightning magic!?"

"Huh?"

"Wow, you can use lightning!"

Nove and Daine were stunned as they looked at the electricity gathered in my palm. Was this bad too?

But my master was very happy. He ruffled my hair while squealing. Is he a puppy?

"Lightning magic, which is said to be difficult in terms of image and control… is easy and convenient…?"

"W-wait, lightning is all about power, right? The more powerful it gets, the harder it should be to control. It's almost meaningless if it's just tingling."

"Y-yeah, that's right. I can't do it with power here, so I'll try it again later…"

"Lightning is cool, isn't it?"

"It's not versatile enough."

I see, electricity is familiar and convenient to me, but in this world, there is no system to utilize electrical energy, so it doesn't make much sense.

If you're talking about convenience, I think it would be magic that does something with space, but I can't yet imagine converting magic power into space.

This may be a side effect of the exchange. The fixed concept of science is getting in the way of the free image of magic.

If I study more about this world, I might be able to use even more amazing magic.

Electricity is amazing too, though.

Oh, by the way, there's one more thing I can use.

I approached Daine, who was lounging on the couch, and put my hand on his shoulder.

"Hm? What the… Huh!?"

"What's wrong?"

"Hey, you! Where did you get that…?"

What I cast on Daine was recovery. However, it was only enough to close wounds or improve blood circulation. Daine's stiff shoulders should have loosened up a bit.

I don't really want to say where I learned it.

"Tch, that woman…"

"Huh? What? What happened?"

"Hey, kid, I'll teach you the proper way. So forget about that. Okay?"

"Oh, I see… Recovery, huh."

Daine grabbed my shoulder and shook me. He seemed really angry. But I'm grateful if he'll teach me. For the time being, I nodded.

"It's rare for Daine to teach."

"Today is the day we saw a lot of Daine's rare side."

"Kukuku, that acting was something to behold."

"What did you really do…"

Did he do something without me knowing? I kind of wish I had seen it.

He's pretending not to know, but he's pinching my face. Don't use me to hide your embarrassment.

"Hey, it's time for the little one to go to bed."

Isn't it still early!?

Don't take your frustration out on me.

"If we're going to collect and camp, I guess it's better to get a companion certificate issued at the guild branch."

"…I don't want to take him to the branch."

"There's no more threat to Owl, is there? If you stay in the inn all the time, you'll suffocate. Maybe you should take a walk around town for a change of pace."

"…Okay."

The leader persuaded my reluctant master. He's a pushover, which is helpful.

Yay, we're going out tomorrow!

"Now that that's settled, go to bed early."

My joy was short-lived as I was taken to bed. That's a different story!

Poof, into the soft bed, blanket swoosh, rough pat. Before I knew it, I was all ready for bed.

"…Did it distract you a little?"

"…"

What does it mean to be distracted? I thought about it for a moment and then I understood.

I see.

The talk about magic and the plans for camping.

Everyone was worried about me because I had been through a lot of hard times today, so they came up with some fun stories for me.

The kindness is touching.

And then, something starts to squirm…!

I'm not used to being treated with this kind of consideration. It would be better if they were more casual. I think it's just a blow to be treated with consideration after making a fool of myself.

If you're too gentle, you'll want to wriggle like a tentacle grilled on a grill.

Daine looks at me with amusement as I squirm under the blanket. Don't look, but it's fine because that's how things are. But don't look.

I don't want to sleep after all.

I feel like I'm going to have a bad dream.

… It would be nice if I could get some magic cast on me at a time like this.

As I stared at Daine with only my eyes showing, a sigh escaped him and his palm descended.

"Well, I guess I have no choice… 'Sleep'."

I was enveloped in a gentle magic, and soon my consciousness sank into darkness.

Thank you, good night.

[jade-parcels]

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The bunnies’ other jobs!

From my bunny cafe au

((I am so peeved :((( I had this all written out!! And I deleted it by accident!! Darnnnnn!!!))

Anon asked “You mentioned that some of the bunnies have day jobs so do they all have jobs outside the cafe or just a few?” (Something along these lines…again…I deleted it by accident 😔)

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Diluc/‘Angel’

After his father got bored with the wine industry, he passed the whole company off to Diluc on his 18th birthday in order to shift his focus to mining. Diluc found himself swamped with all kinds of business decisions while just barely being an adult. He expanded the company and hired some very trustworthy people to handle things for him so he could finish college

When the business was given to him, Diluc and Kaeya had an explosive fight over it. Kaeya felt like he deserved to have some say in what happens to the business, he’s still a part of the family! But Diluc refused to let him in on any decisions so Kaeya packed his bags and left (not before cussing him out in front of their father, staff and business partners). He was just in a silly, goofy mood. They’re fine now, not on the best terms but they do chat and meet up for lunch on occasion.

He is filthy rich, he couldn’t spend all of his all of his money if he tried, so he doesn’t really need the job at the cafe! Kaeya got him the job because he knew his brother was stuck in a weird, antisocial funk and needed some fun in his life

Diluc loves this job, he has a great time, but it isn’t his main job. His priority will always be the family business!! If he has to quit his job at the cafe, he would in a heartbeat

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Kaeya

Kaeya was going to go into the police academy but was scouted out by a modeling agency. They had seen him at Ragnvindr company events and thought ‘well damn’ so they gave him a pretty generous deal

Kaeya makes a good living off of modeling, the tips and paycheck from the cafe. He rakes in cash pretty quickly just cause he knows how to get it. That, and his dad sends him checks every other month as well. Kaeya thinks of it as ‘I’m sorry’ money. He isn’t wrong

He doesn’t travel much for modeling, which he doesn’t mind, so he kinda just hangs around the city with a lot of free time on his hands between photo shoots. That’s why he got this job at the cafe! It gives him something to do and it’s fun as hell ;)

Albedo

Bedo is one busy bunny. He finished college early and is getting his masters degree online. He works most days at the cafe and on the weekends, he tutors other college students in bio/chem/science related subjects

(He was actually Xiao’s tutor back when he was failing chemistry!! Xiao is very thankful for Albedo’s help!!)

His dream is to become a biochemist, he’s always been interested in cells and what makes up living beings. So having a career in that field would make him the happiest man alive

His mother and sister live outside the city in a more rural area so he spends a lot of time FaceTiming the two of them! Klee is always so excited to hear about Albedo’s experiments or the people he’s met while working in such a bustling, fun city :)

Zhongli

Zhongli is a simple man! He’s a bunny waiter and an artist

He creates intricate pieces based on folklore from different cultures, focusing mostly on dragons. His favorite medium is paint, he loves painting on glass and layering the panes in order to create a 3D piece

He sells his works to galleries, shops and anyone who wants them! As long as they appreciate the story behind the artwork. Sadly…He undersells his work. He could def be making more money but he just does not desire money or material goods the way others may

So he got his job at the cafe in order to help out his dear friend Ningguang, not for money, he only planned on working there for a month or two until she got more bunnies but…he ended up really loving the people he works with :’) he looks forward to working with them now and texts/calls them outside of work to meet up for lunch or bowling (such an old man thing to do omfg)

Dainsleif/‘Sweetie’

Dain was a bouncer at another bar before leaving to come to Celestia’s! He’s good friends with Beidou, they belong to the same motorcycle club so when she was talking to him about the lack of security at the cafe/bar, he stepped in to help out

Little did he know…he’d actually become a bunny…And like it

This is his full time job now, he doesn’t have another for the time being. While he is a bunny at the cafe, he still keeps an eye out for any threats to his coworkers and has access to the offices upstairs (Ningguang’s office and the security office)

When he isn’t waiting tables, he’s upstairs in a tank top and sweatpants keeping an eye on the security cameras and talking to the other security guards through their ear pieces

Ajax

Ajax is a student who doesn’t really have much time on his hands

He mows lawns in the summer and he’s quit his job as a cashier to come work at the cafe! He mostly works night shifts his cause he’s still going to school aaaaaand he’s on his college’s swim team! He’s about to graduate so he works close with his coach to help train the others on the team

He doesn’t really want his family knowing that he skips around in a skimpy bunny outfit and fucking customers most nights but I mean…They’re bound to find out if they see him in pictures people post

Xiao/‘Tofu’

Xiao is an art student!! He wants to be a tattoo artist :)

He’s already got one sleeve of tattoos, it’s unfinished but you can’t really tell just by looking. When he isn’t at the cafe, he’s either in class or shadowing Ganyu, his best friend and tattoo artist. Their art styles greatly differ, she focuses her craft on cutesy, colored tattoos, but she is skilled. And Xiao looks up to her

Xiao admires Zhongli too, they met at the cafe and when Zhongli found out Xiao wants to be a tattoo artist he told him that once he’s licensed, he wants to get a tattoo from him :’)

Baizhu/‘Honey’

Baizhu is a (mostly) full time pharmacist, hence why he isn’t usually at the cafe

He also has a niece, Qiqi, who he babysits often. He loves her very much so he has no problem watching her! Baizhu will even bring her to the pharmacy with him when he’s swamped with work. In the break room, he has a play kitchen, coloring books and a bunch of puzzles to keep Qiqi occupied while he works :)

When he’s not at work, he’s at home resting. He has chronic pain flare ups in his back and shoulders that can make life miserable :( he has plenty of good days that outweigh the bad! And as a pharmacist, he has access to any medicine he needs to make his life easier!

Dottore(Alain)/‘Doc’

Alain’s an oral surgeon who’s a little bit….too into his job

He isn’t phased by blood or gore so he’s easily able to conduct procedures that would make other squeamish. He’ll pull teeth, put in dental implants, remove rotten tissue, any of that without even flinching

Outside of that, he works at the cafe. He wears a mask in order to avoid being recognized even though at his job as a surgeon, he’s usually wearing a medical mask anyways. It’s just a precaution

This has nothing to do with his career but he used to be a tap dancer and actor so he’d join in on local theatre shows! He helped build sets when he wasn’t rehearsing. He doesn’t have time for that anymore (which kinda makes him sadddd) but he has all kinds of theatre playlists on his phone and in his car that he’ll sing along to

Scaramouche/‘Boss’

Scara’s job at the cafe is his main job! His side job is something you may not expect from such a grump

He works at an animal shelter! In fact, he brings cats home to train so they have an increased chance of being adopted. Someone is more likely to adopt a potty trained, socialized cat than a feral cat who doesn’t know what a litter box is. So Scara brings them to his apartment for some one-on-one socializing, training and cuddling

One time he offhandedly mentioned working at an animal shelter while he was working at the cafe and sure enough, three separate customers from the cafe came by to adopt!!! Only one actually took an animal home but he was still surprised that those people had listened to him and cared enough to come by

Scara is a jerk most of the time but when he’s at home…by himself…With a lil kitten sleeping in his lap while he plays games on his PC…Yeah, he softens up a bit

So as you can see, we have a very diverse group working at the cafe! They’ve all learned a lot from each other, come to appreciate each other’s friendship and come to help each other out when one of their coworkers is in need or upset.

[bibliophilecats]

book asks: 2, 3, 4, 11, & 17, please!

Thank you for asking!

2. top 5 books of all time?

The first ask, and already a really difficult one. I think I will stick with older books that (to me!) have remained favourites over the years and that I have read more than once (=proven their worth)

Tamora Pierce's Alanna and Daine quartett's (no, that is not cheating 😋)

Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series (still not cheating - if I'd have to pick, I think I would maybe choose Foxglove Summer)

Walter Moer's City of Dreaming Books (or Rumo? Argh, this is hard!)

Astrid Lindgen's Seacrow Island

L.M. Montgomery Anne of the Island

3. what is your favourite genre?

According to my TheStoryGraph statistics and the genres on my shelf, that would be fantasy (though tbh, I think "fantasy" is just such a broad term, it doesn't say all that much? I think I learn most towards high fantasy). But I do like other genres, too!

4. what sections of a bookstore do you browse?

I used to browse SFF, YA and the bargain sections. But as I read mostly in English nowadays and the selection in German bookstores of English language books is small/only includes bestseller, I now mostly check cooking and nature/science (those I do read in German). And the bargain section.

11. what non-fiction books do you like if any?

I have more difficulties reading non-fiction because I am so slow at reading them. But since I discovered non-fiction audiobooks, they do feature a little more often in my reading. Still, there are so few that I find it difficult to see a clear trend. I did enjoy The Sleepwalkers (how WW1 started), Ace (sexual identity) and Intuitive Eating (Health) and on my tbr are, among others, Caitlin Doughty's books, N. Philbrick's The Heart of the Sea (whaleship Essex) and How to be a Victorian by Ruth Goodman. Mostly, I pick whatever takes my fancy. I'd say I am not so into true crime and not at all into self help.

17. top 5 children’s books?

I fear, some of those are not internationally know. But I do love them:

Erwin Moser: Der Mond hinter den Scheunen

Torben Kuhlman's children's picture books (some are available in English)

Michael Ende: Der Wunschpunsch (oh, this one is availabe in English, too)

Sven Nordqvist's Petterson and Findus books (Pettson and Findus in English?)

Cornelia Funke Die große Drachensuche (which was the first version of what later came to be Dragon Rider and written in 1994)

Ask me about books

[themadauthorshatter]

If you're up to date with my posts, then you know what's about to happen.

I've read the books, WE'VE ALL READ THE BOOKS, but this is a somewhat fun switch-a-roo.

Expect a BUNCH of changes that I'll try justifying, especially painful ones, so bear with me🙏

OTP SWAP PART 1: THE CRUEL PRINCE!!!!

I'm starting with the first book for obvious reasons

Like before, we start in the mortal world with Ashley Duarte(yes, human!Cardan's last name is Duarte, but like I said, bear with me) making tacos in the kitchen while one of the MANY dogs and other animals wait for her to drop some food. Baby boy Cardan and his older half-sister Rhyia are watching some human stuff, maybe Looney Tunes or old Mickey Mouse cartoons, when the door is knocked on, which alerts the animals and wakes a half asleep Cardan; Rhyia does not wake up.

Cardan answers it and finds a cloaked Madoc at the door. Rather than ask who he is or call for his mother, he stares at this man, who kneels and asks as evenly as possible if his mother is home.

Cardan slams the door in his face, which prompts Ashley to ask why he did so.

Madoc BANGS on the door and shouts, "Asha!" and Ashley pales as she realizes who is at the door.

She demands Cardan to go upstairs as Madoc kicks the door open and walks inside, giving the same speech as the original, that Balekin told him she'd ran away with his daughter, that she killed a woman who was just as pregnant as her, that she ran away and married some lowly farm hand and blacksmith. He thought it was a lie, but nope. Here she stands.

Asha(which is her real name) is deeply ashamed at his words, and tries to pull Cardan away; an angry Madoc is an unstable Madoc.

Like before, Justin rushes in to save his family, but ends up getting kebabbed with his wife.

Rhyia does wake up to see both and Madoc spills the tea that she's his and needs to pack her bags because they're leaving, and Cardan's coming with.

Cardan, despite being seven, is outraged and tries to kick Madoc into oblivion with no avail. Rhyia, however, swears that she'll never love a monster like Madoc, who simply scoffs and tells her to wrangle the human and gather her things in half an hour, because they're leaving for Faerie.

Reluctantly, they do and they never see the mortal world again for a very long time.

Jump to the present day as Cardan, a now seventeen year old human heart throb, is getting prim and proper for a revel. His hair is getting styled nice, he's in a nice suit, he's wearing a cool belt that makes him look like he has a tail, and has ear cuffs that make his ears look pointed like a faerie.

He also has rowan berries on his wrist, because he doesn't want the necklace to be easy to see as a lot of his shirts show his chest.

He's dolled up and meets Locke, his brother that came around when Madoc married Oriana and had Oak. The two did not get along, at first, but they began to tolerate each ither as they realized they were the only humans in Faerie that were gentry kids.

Locke is more of a bard or a poet, always seen with a little book, and doesn't wear the same stuff Cardan does, so no pointed ear cuffs for him. He's also more accustomed to Faerie, being good with half truths and minor deception. He's on good terms with both Madoc and Oriana.

Cardan, however, is not on good terms with either of them, as he has tried multiple times to leave Faerie, with and without Rhyia with him, and every time ended with Madoc outside scowling at him and leading him back to his room. Still has that 'no kill' rule, but he's better with sneaking and a sword, having been able to lighten his steps so he could sneak past Madoc and his guards whenever he tried to leave. He's not bad with a sword, but he still has a lot to learn, being 17 and all. When he doesn't have a sword in his hands, he has an animal in them, i.e. a foal, a dog, or, at one point, a skunk that was calm enough to not spray him. Yeah, animal lover that can hold his own.

The two exchange banter and Locke shows show rare excitement for this revel, saying the two will have the time of their lives. Locke, who isn't as close with her, wonders where Rhyia is, but Cardan reveals she's not attending, instead going to visit some friends in the mortal world.

Her funeral as the boys saddle up with Oriana amd Madic and go to the revel.

Similar events occur, like Oriana telling the boys to be careful, Madoc talking to Dain and Balekin, and Locke leading Cardan through the revel so they can have a good time.

IT GOES DOWNHILL WHEN THE GREENBRIAR TWINS AND THEIR FRIENDS ARRIVE. Jude, her older sister Taryn, and their friends, Edir, a bard that can sing and play anyone under the table, Valerian, who's a sadist, and Nicasia, the princess of the Undersea.

Jude and Taryn may have the same face and body, but don't be fooled, Jude has horns, always wears a sword, and will slap you in a dress and then set it on fire without a second’s hesitation. Taryn, however, always has a bunch of flowers in her hair, always wears a dress, and uses words as her weapon. Did you know that she broke on of the most boisterous men in Faerie qith nothing but her words? True story. Edir is the guy that keeps them both in check, an order of Balekin's, which we'll learn later. He is also more of Jude's friend and Taryn's bed buddy, in SFW terms. Nicasia is Jude's friend, like FRIEND, and Valerian is the same, really, just more of an ass now that he has more even targets.

Everyone bows to these guys, even Cardan and a smirking Locke. That smirk vanishes when Taryn winks at Cardan, who Jude GLARES AT.

Locke feels the same way, cinfused and angry, but no time to think in it because Valerian storms toward a confused Cardan and grabs him by the collar, snarling that he can play dress up and make believe all he wants because it won't hide his plain hair or round ears or barn dog smell, so he shouldn't even bother.

Valerian throws him back and Locke rounds on Cardan, asking him what the hell that was between him and Taryn. Cardan brushes him off, as it was just a wink, not a lap dance. Before they can REALLY go at it, crying draws their attention and see that Jude just pincushioned someone who didn't bow, said someone nkw having a hole in their stomach and a slash across their torso. Taryn is annoyed, Nicasia and Valerian are trying not to laugh, and Edir, who's embarassed, is scolding Jude for losing it at a revel.

Jump to after the revel and the day of school. The boys do indeed get dirt kicked on their food, but instead of 'make me,' Cardan snaps, 'TRY me,' because Nicasia asks if he's as filthy as other human boys. Locke talks him down, but Valerian, kicking more dirt and even throwing some IN Cardan's face, asks if the two qould like them for friends.

Locke apologizes for Cardan, but Jude commands he prove it by dropping out of the tournament, it'll be less embarrassing than getting his ass beaten in front of everyone.

Nicasia spots one of the ear cuffs and pulls it off, asking if he stole it. Big mistake because the cuff burns her hand, as it is iron and iron hurts Faeries.

Cardan smirks and the group leaves, Locke scolding him for being stupid.

Later, at dinnner, after talk of Dain's coronation, Cardan, despite some minor objection from Rhyia, asks Madoc a question: May he please have a green sash for the tournament? Why? He would like to be a knight, please and thank you. Madoc chikes on his wine, Locke coughs to hide a laugh, Rhyia winces, and Oriana os shicked into silence.

Madoc gives it to him straight: he's not bad with a sword, he's good on his feet,and he's the best damned rider that anyone's ever seen, but no. He cannot compete for knighthood, on the count of being the furthest thing from a killer imaginable and just being in over his head.

Cardan protests that he can do just fine, but Madoc warns him to stop before he gets himself thrown in a dungeon instead if his room until the coronation of prince Dain.

Cardan relinquishes and we get the salt prank like before, except Locke is pissed beyond all reason at his foster brother. Cardan doesn't mind until he's grabbed by Edir and Valerian, Locke being pulled by the hair by Jude and both are thrown in the river, which has Nixies in it.

Thier supplies get yeeted, Locke gets pulled out by Valerian and is made to kiss Jude on the lips and both her horns, but, when asked, Cardan does not give up, vowing that he will never give up, which makes Jude laugh and the group leave.

Locke and Cardan walk home, get some baths, and go to bed, except they go to the mortal world with Rhyia and meet her friends Vivienne and Heather at the mall. Vivienne apologizes for Jude's behavior, and we learn that Rhyia is planning to leave Faerie, and is probably going alone.

The boys return and endure a lesson, but Jude pushes Locke's buttons, so Cardan pushes her into a tree. Challenge accepted.

TOURNAMENT TIME!! Cardan fairs wellin that Valerian is lazy, Edir is out of shape, and Jude got cocky, so he wins.

Jude fumes at him, later grabbing him by the tail on his belt amd demanding he beg for her forgiveness. He does... NOT! And spits in her face that she may push him down, but he'll pull her down with him, and it will hurt her like hell.

Taryn approaches him and expresses interest in him, saying that she once took both Edir and Nicasia from Jude because people just like a sensitive girl.

She leaves and the tournament eventually ends, which leads Cardan to return hime and meet Dain, who requested one of Madoc's people to tell Cardan one of Eldred's children had come for a visit.

Dain and Cardan get talking and Dain offers him something that isn't knighthood: spying. Plus one wish.

Cardan knows what he wants: to not be controled.

Granted, but Dain can still control him and the fruits of Faerie will still effect him.

Screwy, but deal, he's a spy now

STAY TUNED FOR PART 2!!!!!

[thorinthehottotty]

Thorin Drabble - Sleepless

A/N: Missing my baby from this damn quarentine. I miss sleeping next to him and so I'm going to write this one to get some feelings out in a healthy and creative way!

Summary: After Erebor is reclaimed and everyone's made a (close to) full recovery, you are suddenly cast into a big wave of insomnia and can't quite figure out why. Thorin knows there is something wrong.

Warnings: Lots of fluff.

"Y/N!" The barking of your name has you jerking upright with a start. Your cheeks burn and you suddenly feel like a little kid getting scolded by your teacher in front of the class. It wasn't far off.

Only now it was Thorin scolding you in front of the council that had been strung together. Thorin always had Balin and Dwalin by his sides for these meetings, just as Dain always had his own dwarrow. Other than that, Thorin insisted you and his nephews join them in these lengthy (and less than entertaining) meetings.

"Is your king boring you?" Dain demands harshly. He always was looking for any way to rub his heel on your face.

"No," you manage softly, "I'm sorry, my king. Please continue."

"Dain, it is not your place to dicipline." Thorin's voice is tight and you can't stop the swell of pride in you. It draws you away from the back of the chair and upword. You would give your beloved king a reason to be proud by serving him well.

The meeting continued to dwell on. Glances always being casted your way. Thorin's face unreadable and you swear Dain's scribe was purposefully reading slow and monotonous. In the last stretch of this meeting, another meeting regarding the trade routes to the Iron Hills, Thorin leaned into his hand, letting his fingers cover his mouth as he watched you. The last words were barely out of the scribes mouth when Thorin practically roared to end the meeting, obviously fed up, he excused everyone.

You sigh in relief, climbing to your aching feet. Still, you felt embarressed to have fallen asleep at a meeting. This was the first time all day you could sink from your heels and rest. That must have been why you dozed off.

Sleep had been evading you enough lately. Maybe you could skip dinner entirely tonight, just crawl right into bed. The thought repulsed you a bit and you don't know why.

Finally, after months and months of fighting and surviving the adventure of a life time, you could reside in the reclaimed city of Erebor. The one you helped claim! (Sure as hell not King Dain of the Iron Hills). A bed was like a dream here. After the dragon and the battle and the terrifying process of almost losing the last of the line of Durin, since the end of the orcs and goblins and spiders, you could finally rest easy. Or so you thought. Sleep evaded you like Bilbo evaded Smaug. Caught, but craftier than expected.

"Y/N, don't leave just yet. I wish to have a word with you." You almost panicked when you saw Dain sitting beside Thorincs spot. Looking hella smug. Your king had stood and moved toward the fresh tea in the corner. "Alone, if you would, cousin"

"I have matters to discuss with you further, Thorin. I'd prefer not to have to track you down again later." Dain's eyes hadn't left yours as he spoke, a smirk slipping on his face.

"We will reschedule. Y/N, come take the seat beside mine." His voice is even. He is making tea, something you've never seen him do before. You don't hesitate, but his cousin does. He glares at you over the table.

"These are affairs of state-"

"And they can wait until after dinner. Go about your business." The snapping of Thorin's voice startles you both. Dain reluctantly stands and steps out of the room, narrowing a glare on you as he grumbles a curse in Khudzul. You ignore the word you don't know. When the door clangs shut your left with a sense of dread.

The silence incredibly loud. Thorin continues with the tea for a moment before carrying the tray back over to the table. "You like honey in your tea, yes?" You blink in surprise as he sets the cup in front of you.

"Ah, yes, thank you, Thorin." He smiled at the name. Insisting you call him that whenever it was just you and the company. The formal titles were just for appearances. He was kind and warm to those who had served him well on the journey.

"You look exhausted. Are your chambers not to your comfort?" He asks. Oh. He was not angry. He wad concerned. His face showed it.

"They're wonderful, Oín just thinks I'm not used to living underground. He says I'll grow used to the cycles." Thorin tskes his seat again, not drinking any tea himself. It warmed your heart that he made it for you.

The king hums, doubtfully by the look of it. "You do not agree?"

Shaking your head you sip the tea and smile. It was a white tea, one of your favorites. "No, I'm not prone to insomnia. Even when we were being chased by orcs I managed more sleep than this." Setting the cup down you rub the corner of your eye weakly.

"When did this begin?"

"Almost a full week now. I go to bed exhausted and wake out a dead sleep just as much as before. Then I can't sleep anymore."

"It wasn't affecting you while you took care of me?" After his fight with Azog and the chest and foot wound he gained. He still limped, but last week you cleared him. You slept in spurts on the sofa in his chambers for months to watch over him. A particularly gifted healer you were. But you still got more sleep, especially toward the end of it when his ever weeze didn't give you a heart attack.

Shaking your head you reach for the tea again, finding comfort in it.

"I find my own chambers rather quiet these days. I miss waking and finding you below the window." He gives you a warm smile and it has you grinning back at him. "The mountain has a stillness to it. A quiet that builds unease. It does not surprise me you cannot sleep."

His words make sense to you. You miss the quiet, even breathing he gave. The first month after the battle, the tiny amount you slept, it was spent with a hand on his shoulder, feeling the heaves he dragged in. You refused to leave his side and he never wanted you to. It made you grow closer.

"I'm sorry, Thorin." You sigh to him. You try to push away the tears in your eyes, feeling a bit frustrated.

"Could it be you are uncomfortable sleeping alone? Didn't you speak of having to share a bedroom most of your life?" You nod.

"That actually makes plenty of sense. I guess, I do miss Bilbo always managing to find a way to rest his head on me at night." The memory has the both of you chuckling fondly. The hobbit always found you approachable and often cuddled into you for warmth (you were by far the coolest in terms of temperature). Thorin watched you sip your tea quietly for a long moment. The both of you basking in the presence of each other.

"I would have excused you from this meeting today if you had told me how you were feeling." He murmurs softly. "Dain is particularly ruthless."

"I don't know why you want me in these meetings. I'm a healer, Thorin." You offer.

"I value your input. You always bring another light to the table and it should do you well to learn." He gives you a gentle smile and you can't help but reach a hand out to cover his.

Flipping his hand, your fingers end up in his wide, calloused palm. He gently closes his hand around yours. There is so much warmth in it, you let your eyes close and his touch sooth your frazzled nerves.

"I should probably be going on. Balin said he could use some help in the library. Thank you for the tea."

"Balin can manage on his own. Go to bed. Try to rest while you can. I'll send word to the old dwarf." He rose from his chair, leaning forward, your heart fluttered as he kissed you forehead gently. It made your cheeks pink and you melt into a puddle.

...

Your warm sheets are miserable to leave when knocking sounds. Carefully, you drag out of the bed and shlep to the door, dreading the knocking. You'd barely fallen asleep. You opened it to reveal one of Thorin's royal guards.

"Hello."

"Goodevening, Lady Y/N. The king is requesting your immediate aid in his chambers. It is urgent." Your eyes fly wide. What did her do now?

Without hesitate, you snatch your bag of supplies from the door and throw on a robe, sliding into slippers. You barely remember to lock the door behind yourself. When Thorin calls clearly from beyond the door, you rush in. He's at his desk, looking over papers and his room is delightfully warm in comparision too yours. Tending the fire always seemed to slip your mind.

"What did you do this time? I didn't clear you for any sparring yet, Thorin." You announce as you step up next to him. Thorin casts an amused look as the door to his chambers close.

"I'm sorry, you misunderstand. I just wanted to propose a solution to your problem." You find yourself arching a less-than-funny eyebrow. "Spend the night here. You can rest in my bed." Your eyes widen.

"I couldn't, Thorin. You said you've been struggling to sleep, too." He draws himself up from where he was leaning over the desk and smiles down at you.

"You can. I find your presence a comfort. Now go and rest."

"Not in your bed. I'll take the couch. I don't want to intrude."

"The bed is plenty large for the both of us." He offers and you see the rare mischevious glint in his eye. The one his nephews inheirited.

"Would that be proper, my king?"

"It is just us. No one should be intruding on the king."

You sigh and glance toward the enormous bed. A nervous thrill filled you. He grins at the little nod you give and pecks your forehead, making you into mush again.

"Thanks, Thorin." And with that he leads you over to the bed and draws back on the sheets for you. You laugh and climb into them as he tucks them up around you. The night wears on a bit as you doze.

When Thorin himself retires a short while later, you reach a hand out automatically. It rests on his shoulder again. And you were out like a light. So heavily that you didn't even hear the entry of Dain (and it was quite something).

Thorin glowered at his cousin's intrusion and sat up in his bed, nearly on the edge of sleep himself before this. "So this is why she's aways in the meetings? I can't believe you, cousin."

"That is enough, Dain. You speak to your future queen." He rumbled quietly.

"I don't see any braids. Why is she in your bed?"

"To sleep if you cannot tell. Just as I was prepared to." Dain shakes his head. In your sleep you give an adorable little whimper, face crumbling as your hand reaches. It quiets the room and they watch for a moment. Thorin slips a hand over the sheets, offering you his arm to calm you. It does the trick.

The king of the Iron Hills frowns and sighs. "Alright, I see. But this does not mean I trust her."

"You don't trust the woman who worked tirelessly an saved your kings life?" Thorin demands, carefully scooting closer to you in the bed, uncaring that his cousin caught him.

"She's not dwarrow!" Thorin pulls on your wrist, dragging your arm across him. It made him grin proudly when you curled happily into his side, effectively waking just a bit.

Not realizing Dain was standing at the foot of the bed, you buried your face in his chest and yawned. "Mmm, you're like a furnace." Thorin took the oppertunity to wrap his arms around you. His future queen. His one. Snuggled happily aggainst him.

"It matters not, cousin." Dain sighed, shaking his head.

"Fine. Just don't keep her up anymore. I won't hold back the next time she falls asleep in a meeting. First thing tomorrow, we need to speak."

"Aye. Goodnight." And Dain left, leave Thorin to pull you even close and give a lingering kiss to your head, not missing me goofy smile that spread on your still sleeping face.

[trisanachandlers]

other thoughts on lioness rampant:

it is far and away THE BEST book in this quartet in terms of writing

it also strikes me as the most cinematic, in that it has the most moments that like... filled me with childlike glee at the idea of getting to see it adapted for tv? I guess we still don’t really know what exactly is getting adapted or how it will be done but god I want to see the whole coronation day battle sequence so badly! it may be because I specifically turned that part of my brain on at some point in this book like I hadn’t for the others but throughout almost all of it I had really clear mental images of everything and everyone. of course I’m tempering my expectations because even if it does get adapted everything could be so different from how I imagine it, but you know, all any of us really wants in life is the experience my mom had with the movie of the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe where in the theater we got to the sweeping shot of the tents in aslan’s camp and she gasped and went “oh my god this is EXACTLY how I always pictured it” anyway that’s what I want from literally every scene starting with the ordeal of kings and ending with alanna v roger

it’s also the best alanna and jonathan book, even more so now that I’m like an adult who can relate to/fully delight in the relationship between people who used to be in love and therefore know each other really really well and are amicable enough to use that fact to just roast each other constantly, with affection

seriously there is not a single moment in this book where they’re in the same room and it doesn’t quickly become the funniest fucking thing i’ve ever read. “jon, do i really have to say ‘awesome artifact’? oh well, guess I’m too old to put a frog in his bed”

I reblogged someone’s john mulaney quotes as sotl characters post a while back and the only one I was like “huh?” about was gary as “it’s a grid system, motherfucker!” because I had largely forgotten the details of what happened in these books until this reread since it’d been like 11-12 years, so when I got to the part where gary is like “actually the practical work of running a kingdom is really interesting! grain prices and farmers and” my brain went “IT’S A GRID SYSTEM, MOTHERFUCKER” and I fully burst out laughing on an airplane and startled my seatmates

more (gay) thoughts below

“love you. always have. always will. never know how he did it”

don’t have much else to say about that i’ve just been lying on the floor weeping softly for days

the thing is I’ve reread protector of the small at least once, some books several times, and I’ve reread trickster at least twice, and I haven’t reread all of immortals but I’ve read wild magic and emperor mage at least twice each, but I really hadn’t reread song of the lioness because I was always like “I love these books in spirit but they really weren’t as good in terms of the writing and also the problematic white savior stuff so I’d rather reread the better work she’s done later in her career & the development of this world,” and as a result I think I’d forgotten how major a character thom actually is? (had also highkey forgotten this about coram, gary, and alex because in the intervening decade my brain had simplified it down to “these books are about alanna, her cat, her three big love interests, thayet and buri in the last book, and of course roger, and also raoul is there I guess”) but the thing is I think that also happened because like alanna and george and raoul and jonathan and thayet and buri all get to keep being, like, obviously not major characters but important secondary characters, because some of them are important to kel, and sometimes to daine, and obviously to aly. but even though liam is right about it being meaningful to die for something important, alanna also has a point in that argument because a character can’t continue being important to the story if they’re dead! anyway I’m sad

I know this has been commented on before but they’re all so freakin’ young! which I did not understand when I was 12 but now jonathan is ascending the throne and he is literally my age! what the fuck!

another thing about being older is I’ve gotten over the thing I had as a kid where I never wanted to love the main characters best because I felt like I was supposed to and I didn’t want to do what I was supposed to do or something, and wow, I love alanna so deeply, she is so perfect, she is so flawed, I adore her so much. She is such a badass! She is such a good friend! She is such a good sister! She is such a good daughter (to myles, to be clear)! She is such a complicated and evolving partner who learns so much about how to be a better one over time! She and george are SO GOOD TOGETHER in the end

I know tammy kind of sidestepped saying whether she’s bisexual (or misinterpreted the question, was my impression?) and talked about her being genderqueer instead but also I get such a bi vibe from like every part with thayet. there is a compelling argument that it really is alanna, as a person attracted to men, negotiating femininity and male attraction and her feelings around it through her friendship with thayet, who is very conventionally feminine and beautiful! but also “she is so beautiful, I think I want to... be her” is such a classic confused baby sapphic thing at least among gays now that like.... also for a scene involving three people who are all ostensibly heterosexual, the part where alanna refuses to wear a dress to present the princess she rescued to the king, who is her ex-lover, who she was in a secret relationship with while presenting to everyone else as a guy, feels very, very queer to me

anyway alanna and jonathan are both bi

(my read of first adventure was also that jonathan totally had a crush on page alan well before he knew about alanna but anyway)

also I had fully forgotten about the part where she gets misgendered (basically?) in the tavern in maren and people think she’s a twink and liam’s boyfriend/a guy who is in love with him in a gay way, which then doesn’t really go further than confusion and the vague sense that being mistaken for gay = danger in this universe. but if alanna + gender gets to be more nuanced in the 21st century, as I would hope from that tammy tweet, then I would be interested to see if there’s more things like that adapted into a tv version.

I would think also SURELY alanna and jon were not THAT subtle like once ~her secret is revealed~ everyone back home seems to figure out they were lovers like by the time jonathan goes to visit the bloody hawk but like that part in maren suggests to me there is NO WAY the heterosexuals of the eastern lands are SO clueless that the court wouldn’t have noticed prince jonathan and squire alan were definitely fucking behind their backs

can katherine have little a trebond twins talking about queerness, as a treat? but anyway

since alanna is myles’ heir now and she is alanna of pirate’s swoop and olau then why isn’t thom of pirate’s swoop named thom of pirate’s swoop and olau

also george and alanna’s conversation at the end about settling down and getting married and having children after roaming together is much funnier now that I know, from having read all of the tortall wiki, that thom of pirate’s swoop is born while they are on a mission

that’s it I guess it’s a good book and I love it and I’m excited to start rereading immortals and see just what the fuck adult me thinks of THAT

[copperhawks]

The Don Monologue

I promised the Don Monologue from Discord and Dee saw the promise, so this is gonna have to go up now lol. It’s getting some edits though due to the recent chapter with Don’s POV.

It's interesting re-reading Don scenes now that I know so much more about him. He IS self-righteous and self-absorbed in some ways. Particularly with regards to the mages and to Sav and the ways their relationship (both romantic and not) affected Sav’s self worth. But, Sav also never expresses those feelings to Don (understandably so, in my opinion, given the imbalance of their positions, but Don is not a mind reader and has 4 years less life experience so he is not to BLAME for Sav not saying anything and if anything WERE going to change for the better to make them more equal, it had to start with Sav opening his mouth. I think it’s pretty clear from the past chapter that had Sav said something, Don would have changed his behavior to ensure Sav never felt that way again).

But he's also just... SO lonely and so traumatized and he's reacting to that in bad ways, yes, undeniably but he also has a way of reaching out to people and SEEING people he cares about in a way pretty much no one else can. We see this with Constant in particular, though we see it with Daine, as well in Don’s first scene in the fic back in Chapter 9.

He's reactive, very much so. He hates Numair ON SIGHT mostly because he thinks Numair is a prostitute Sav has brought home and he's instantly jealous. This mainly comes up in how he reacts to “blood” as Daine puts it. And up until the most recent chapter, it has been mostly aimed at people who hurt Sav (which goes back to the whole argument that if he knew HE’D been hurting Sav somehow, he’d have immediately worked to correct that). We see him within the fic try to immediately get Sav to murder an assassin in cold blood for him and we hear Daine talk about how Don ordered the immediate whipping of a servant who struck Sav. While I’m obviously on Don’s side in terms of not hitting children, a WHIPPING is a very over-the-top punishment for that particular crime. And this is a punishment that his mother, the current Queen, claims is actually soft for the crime. So, you know, that’s the environment he’s being raised in. Daine claims Don regretted this order later and the Queen refused to undo it, but we don’t really see the same reaction with the assassin, although Sav does refuse to actually murder her. Who knows how Don would have reacted had Sav actually followed through.

Most recently, we see him reacting to the death of one of the few friendly lords, Adel, and the threat of Constant’s death with Don practically going feral and trying to kill the new assassin himself. While this comes off as obviously very heroic in the context, it’s the... more heroic side of his reactive tendencies which we’ve seen in much more negative contexts. It’s one of Don’s flaws, indisputably, and something he has to work on. But it’s not something irredeemable and it’s not something that can’t be utilized in a good way. If Don can learn to get a handle on his immediate anger/rage, he could 100% hold it back for an appropriate moment with an appropriate reaction.

But he's a traumatized 22-year-old who's been handled responsibility of a kingdom even though NO ONE around him actually wants him to do any real ruling and is constantly trying to manipulate him. And it's also super clear that Don is afforded exactly zero respect from most people in his life and the few who used to respect him have almost all left (mainly Sav and Daine who are keeping him from Constant). His guards in the scene when Constant falls off the roof REALLY don't respond to his orders AT ALL. They aren't even really bothering to try to save Constant from the stormwings. When Don yells at them and orders them to try to go find help, they obey eventually, but it's explicitly stated that they move VERY slowly while doing so, forcing Don to decide to do it himself and he runs off.

Don makes decision with regards to mages and magic that has some consequences on poorer people and appears to be having even more ripple effect consequences on their harvests and general overall health of both people and livestock due to a lack of mages able to work legally. This is obviously a major problem, one that did not get thought through initially when the decision got made. But with the Queen having just been publicly murdered with magic after so many noble families had been massacred by mages themselves, something had to be done. Since finding the culprits doesn’t seem to have been do-able immediately, a different solution had to be found. Don does the bare minimum of what he thinks he can get away with, despite his trauma, despite his own fears, and even that is backfiring on him now. Because the people are hungry and scared and other countries are looking at Galla as easy prey for their own agendas. All of which has now put Don in-between a rock and a hard place because he’s fighting outside influences as well as revolution from his own people and he can’t please everyone, no matter what he does. He has to feed the people, but feeding the people means inviting slavery into Tortall or marrying the Mage King’s witchling daughter. Easing the restrictions on mages might help stave off starvation and plague, but it would piss off the nobility whose massacred families have yet to receive justice.

He's impulsive in the worst situations, for sure, but take him out of the political scene, put him somewhere that's just... quiet and simple, and he's FINE. He didn't ASK to be king, it's not like he ran for the job knowing he had zero experience and got it anyway, he got thrust into the position due to a combination of ableism and sheer bad luck. He's doing his best and his best just... isn't good enough, not with the situation he got thrown into.

I think for me, he's not always necessarily a LIKABLE character, but I feel for him and I love the journey I know he's on as a character. Like a lot of characters who have similar redemption arcs, it's hard to write them in their more unlikable stage and still have the reader root for them to get better. But I think Don’s starting to move away from that stage as we get to know him more and through different points of view, including his own. 

We have mostly seen Don through everyone else's eyes up until Chapter 31, his first POV chapter, so we've learned about him via Numair, via Daine, via Constant, via Sav. Sav is on very hostile terms with Don, Daine seems to be somewhat siding with Sav though she’s not quite as hostile, Constant seems generally unwilling to just take his siblings’ word for it that Don is “bad” and is only just starting to figure out some of the nuances to the situation, and Numair is... sort-of still forming an opinion. We know he was comparing Don to Ozorne in Chapter 25, but by Chapter 31 he seems more willing to believe Don is redeemable, that Don can be saved and isn’t completely lost like Ozorne. I’m the kind of person who will often follow along with the POV character’s opinions quite a bit, and in this fic, that’s mostly Numair. Numair seems to be softening on Don, seems to be willing to root for him a little at this point and that’s promising.

There's hints here and there to let the reader know that there's more to Don than there would appear and, while I don't think anyone without the author’s behind the scenes info would necessarily be ROOTING for him yet, they should certainly be questioning how much of what we're seeing is truly Don and how much is the person Don's been manipulated into. They should certainly be hoping to see more of him, the true him. Especially after the look into his mind we just got.

[lessofthelego]

MURKY OF MIRKWOOD

[Part Two: Elven Steel]

“Let’s have these off you, Murky-me-lad!!” says a doughty guard removing the irons: he was back in the Walnut Cellar, his details finally processed. The dwarf gestures rightward to a blind-ended hallway, short and dark stained: “Second door down, get yourself washed; there’s nowhere to run, I’ve got the key… I’ll knock on when we‘re ready for you!”  

So-named ‘Murky’ finds himself in a curiously hot and dim booth with a curtain in front, the waxy tanned fabric feels strangely moist to his fingertips as he pulls it back. Immediately a wall of hot air encompasses him about and bright light blasts through. Beyond this lies a steam-filled bathing area; the sudden illumination shows no sign of any other present therein and at his right-hand side there is revealed a wooden chest nestled in the cubicle. He guesses rightly that the curtain and box are employed to save any clothing from excessive damp; therefore he disrobes and enters in, drawing the screen behind. Having passed through a swirling cloud of hot steam he fully discerns a sunken bath; a chunky square column stands to the left, atop which and set flush rests a wide silver font, almost filled with a brown substance like clotted mud. The mixture looks disgusting but the scent of it intrigues him; almost like the grasslands nigh to the Elven-gate of Greenwood in the days of his infancy. He dips in the tip of his left hand for a closer whiff as memories of his mother sat peaceably in a meadow light his mind’s eye. He undertakes to rub off the sticky matter on the back of his right hand but finds that it thins with friction and the more he wipes the further it spreads up his arm. Reaching toward the bath water to wash it away the immense heat almost scorches him ere he plunges in his arm, he swiftly withdraws. Something happens then that he does not expect… a thing remarkable: the mud balm reacts to the heat and hardens, moreover wherever it makes contact with his skin it feels cool. He forms a fist with his right hand and the brown surface cracks into dusty fissures as his arm muscles and tendons contract. The residue is easily brushed aside and the soft flesh underneath gleams new; but most noteworthy, the reddening and soreness about the top part of his wrist is gone. He hurriedly revisits the clothes chest to retrieve thongs to tie up his long hair and proceeds to coat himself from top to toe in the earthy salve.

Before long Legolas gingerly submerges into the searing pool: the ‘Mad Matted Mudman!’ of fable; and so, he enjoys the most invigorating bath he has taken in a long time, if indeed ever. Alas, it was over all too soon: knock—knock—knock! The bather reluctantly removes from the water to find a rubbery second skin has formed about him. He manages to peel away the coating almost in one piece without any pinching or resistance against his blonde mane, nor even fine body hair; moreover, the gashes on his shin and head have inexplicably healed. He is instantly dry and feeling good as new. knock—knock—knock: “I needs be clad” he shouts in reply.

At the sound of laughter beyond the door, Legolas finds that his garments have been confiscated and replaced by a scratchy dun sack with hastily cut-out holes to fit his arms and head. His annoyance is heightened as he wonders how he did not hear the dwarves engaging in the swap; but there is much about dwarf keys that the elves do not know. Thus, he has no choice but to tie the sack around his waist with the tatty rope provided and meet the captors bedecked as a beggar; whence he is led barefoot to reconvene upstairs at the Hall of Hearing. Upon mounting the first tread he hears tumult above, and by which time they reach the top Legolas witnesses the leading out of hapless Dimroc and Gimroc. The dense hall-door slams behind them, causing the elf to detect a feature he had not before noticed: sunken in the wall on either side of the door frame there are mounted two enormous horns with gilded flutes ever poised to announce themselves.

In-going: the disparity versus wood and stone registers immediately beneath his exposed sole, whereat Legolas motions to revisit his former place of standing. The cubic chamber is disproportionately large, being designed no doubt to daunt any unfortunate respondent summoned there. This room offers scant lighting (unlike other regions in the vast subterranean development) save at the fore where the Heads wait; all seated in a preformed and hastily assembled semicircular bench, behind which is an usher’s pulpit with a granite hoarding beyond concealing the high seat of the absent Lord Dain. At the centre of the wooden crescent sits a round dais of bare brick, hooped at its kerb, serving as a dock. The heavy door stands directly opposite the bench, and dim-lit public galleries fill the side walls. Hence the walk from the stairs to the bench seems rather excessive; especially so when countless sets of accusing eyes monitor every footfall from the shadows. At length he ascends the stony disc as his four escorts surround him at ordinal points marked on the floor. Each dwarf faces the front and dares not crane his neck upward; Legolas however stands at a height where his eyes meets those of his prosecutors. And then… nothing: no pronouncement, no whispers nor grunts, nothing but silence! Legolas wonders greatly at this since his former appointment had been met with much derisive clamour and expectant chatter. Moreover, a draft of cold air concentrates all at once about him; and not knowing prior that of old the Dwarven engineers had contrived adjustable ducts leading to the outside world, he finally guesses at the reason for his abrasive burlap garb.

Another minute passes by in chilly silence. Presently, four bell peels mark the time of day and Legolas realises that one hour exactly has passed since he last stood here.  A deep low chant blends seamlessly with the dying reverb of the final bell; the Heads rise from their seats being closely followed by the sounds of shifting and shuffling as the meeting stands to its feet. The intensity and volume of the chant grows into discernable words uttered in ancient Dwarvish. The unseen cantor stops abruptly and those assembled answer him reverentially; this process continues for two more call-reply cycles, concluding with one last solo intonation. Throughout all this the scholarly prince discerns the words ‘Mahal’ and ‘Durin’; this in itself is remarkable since no outsiders are learned in Dwarric-wisdom. Therefore, having no way of knowing what this means he supposes that the ’fourth of noon’ must be a sacred hour among them, or that this date and time holds some significance on their calendar.

The Head on the far left begins, “Are you ready to furnish this hearing with your true name, Elf?”

“I have given it!”

“Very well,” he sighs, “If we are to continue in this pretence, have the Arraigned registered as ‘Prince Murky’ and be done with it!” The gallery erupts with laughter but the speaker remains unimpressed, “Since you come to us with such an implausible account, ‘Your Highness,’ we must view this question most seriously, the Dispensation charges you with spying and trespass: what say you?”

Legolas answers disbelieving: “Spying, on what grounds?”

“Face the front!” demands the dwarf: The so-called ‘Arraigned’ slowly complies, having already noted the radial iron petals set around his feet. The questioner continues, “I note you do not contest the charge of trespass!”

“On what grounds?” repeats the elf.

“I’d worry more about the penalty than the grounds if I were you, Murky!”

“Please enlighten me!”

“For spying, death by hanging!” he gloats “...and for trespass...” but soon falters as one caught out “Der-death by hard labour!”  

The room gasps: “Since you mean to kill me either way; I am as well to take the harder charge and the swiftest course.” reasons the elf.

“We mean to hear you!” another interjects sternly, “Now, lest we gravely lose our patience, reveal yourself and your purpose!”

“Murky of Mirkwood, trespasser and spy, or Legolas Greenleaf, traveller of what used to be called the ‘Free-lands’: what difference does it make here?”

“We could wring the answers from you!” puts in a third.

“I am sure the dutiful Dimroc and Gimroc would oblige you.”

“How do you know their names?” demands the first.

“I asked them: does that equate to spying in these lands?”

The same dwarf sniffs in retort: “You’re awful sure of yourself… for such a one in your shoes…”

Impassive, Legolas glances down at his bare feet with a slight tilt of the head. The flushed inquisitor barks out unformulated words whilst the others splutter and cough; all of them save one, himself of the two panellists who directly faces Legolas, being sat to the right from the elf‘s viewpoint. He is an immutable and permanent looking fellow, not unlike the plain granite behind him: inscrutable yes, but lucid.

As the muttering subsides, Legolas addresses this one directly: “May I speak?”

“You may!”  

“Sirs, I hold it decorous to compliment your inspired dwelling; especially the bathing facilities, of which I can truly say I have never before benefited from the like. However, it is plain to all that I do not find myself stood before you now clothed as I was one hour prior. Is it reasonable to assume that the joint-board has possession of my garments and belongings; and that they have been duly inspected?”

“It is!”  

“There is much at hand in those effects to substantiate my words and to confirm to you all that you have indeed (to be blunt) bagged a prince.  Would it be adequate then to say that in terms of my answering thus far, in relation to who I am, I have not attempted any deceit?”

“It would:” the dwarf then addresses the reporter, “Revise the name on the register to that formerly specified by the Bidden!”

“Not the Arraigned?” considers Legolas to himself.

“How very clever of you,” sneers the first Head, “You have talked yourself into becoming a hostage of war: Haha, and apt for hard labour after all!”

Legolas answers steadily, “I am not aware that our peoples are at war!”

“Oh really,” he snarls, “Our Warrior Lord and his finest soldiery departed these lands not much more than thrice-a-day’s hence: now, Wood Prince, why was that?”

“Ultimately to succeed Thorin Oakenshield as King under the Mountain, it would seem.”

“Ah yes, our beloved Thorin and the elves…”

The centrally sat dwarf stays him, “Ffodor: enough for now, my friend!” who then fixes his gaze on Legolas: “Why are you so eager to prove who you are; when (war or no) my co-auditor rightly points out your value as a hostage?”

“I am not a liar!” replies Legolas.

“And that is your only reason?”

“Is that not enough?”

“Do not misapprehend the licence of this Dispensation, Prince, nor its willingness to act!” calls out the other Head facing Legolas; who then acknowledges his neighbour already addressing the newly renamed Bidden: “Wãelyn, you know elves are dishonest, never tolerate them the slipper‘s twist!”

“Thank you, Karnaech, I need not remind you that the ‘Branch of Juris’ falls to my family this season; however, I will reassure the Mete again that every measure stands upon the sounding and hearing of all occupants at this form!”

Silence falls momentarily until Wãelyn speaks again to Legolas: “So, you are not a liar, I am sure your mother would be most plea…”

“My mother is dead!”  

“Do not over-speak me!” blasts Wãelyn, “If it pleases the Branch, whom I am, we could set a holder’s-bit about you and proceed in your hearing only…”

Legolas stalls…

“As amusing as we find your florid obsequiousness, the Dispensation is not satisfied with your scrubby responses to direct questions, hence I reiterate: Why the fervour to prove your credentials against the merit of your being our hostage?”

“And speak plainly!!!” demands a heckler from the gallery.

Wãelyn makes to stand up, whereupon no other onlooker dares to coo or jeer in agreement with the last comment. At considered length he resettles: “Indeed, be plain!”  

“I am not accustomed to Dwarric Law and do not understand the intricacies of standing before you as the Bidden or the Arraigned: I could cite myself as the Ambushed, the Assaulted, the Abducted or the Tortured…”

Seven faces snarl at him: but Wãelyn, although calloused to these opening words, remains attentive.  He considers the state of mind of the one stood before him, pondering how given the situation he could remain so at ease.  He thinks to himself, “Does he not realise that I could have him hanged right now without issue or repercussion?” The elf continues…

“However, I stand before you as Legolas, called Greenleaf by his mother after her people, Son of King Thranduil of the Woodland Realm in Greenwood! And in the absence of King Dáin, I concede to the authority of his Dispensation.”

“How very kind of you, Highness!” gloats Karnaech; some others harrumph at this but neither Legolas nor Wãelyn react to the interruption.

“You found me recently departed from Erebor where, after the slaying of Smaug by one of the Lake-towners, a battle had ensued…”

“Aye, no doubt prompted by your king!” adds Ffodor.

“Enough!” demands Wãelyn: Legolas resumes…

“For my part I embarked upon a scouting mission to Gundabad and there witnessed the marshalling of the second host set against Erebor; it being led by one Bolg, son of Azog, whom I later slew in single combat. It was here that the fatal contest took place between Thorin and the Defiler, Azog himself; the king fought val…”

“Wait now,” interjects Wãelyn, “you witnessed this but did not intervene?”  

“I was engaged with Bolg at lower quarters and did not witness their fight; however I aided him with a sword!”

“Can you produce witness to this effect?”

“I am not sure: my comrade and a Halfling traveller were close by but I do not know what they saw.”  

Ffodor laughs, “Haha, you provide a little truth to bear out a big lie! You don’t know what your comrade saw: What then: did you and he have a falling out, are you not talking anymore?”

“She... was immobile at Bolg’s hand and about to be slain ere I befell him.”

“Oh it just gets better,” he sneers, “elf-maids trading their silks for armour.”

“Believe what you will,” answers Legolas.

Wãelyn asks, “What of this Halfling?”

“I know that he was a companion of Gandalf and known to Thorin’s company; I heard him referred to as Mr. Baggins but did not catch his first name!”

“Our people trade with the Shire-folk,” says another, “they’re not fighters nor wizard‘s apprentices,” he sniffs: “Huh, shopkeepers more like!”

“Wait now… Baggins, Baggins… I have heard that name before: Haha, Old ‘Third time pays for all’ Bungo the Broker!” Wãelyn smiles for the first time: “He worked for the Took family as I recall, many years ago, he must be ancient by now; a decent fellow, but I’m inclined to agree: not warrior class!”  

“Even so, Mr. Baggins was there; but not so old I would guess,” says Legolas.

“And yet, there is something more,” adds Wãelyn.

“I cannot add much more about him, save that he attended to Thorin as he died of his wounds: this I saw at Ravenhill some way off!”  

“I notice that throughout you are skirting the issue of your father, the King!”

“What would you know?”

Wãelyn summons the usher to bring him a thin stack of documents: “Perhaps it is time that you should hear what we know!”  He straightens the bottom edges of the papers against the board and clears his throat: “I have here a number of drafts of the ‘Ravens’ sent to our Lord Dáin by the hand of Thorin himself…”  He hands the notes back to the usher, “Wylenhin, read these aloud for the benefit of the Mete!”

Wylenhin takes up his position on a high rostrum directly behind Wãelyn and Karnaech, proceeding to read in a loud and clear deep-brown voice:

Lord Dáin,

Allow me to be the first to inform the Seven Families through you, Esteemed Cousin, that despite your shared reticence I am finally to come into my own. The key to the hidden door of Erebor has come down to me from my father; and now on this our day, Durin’s Day, the King’s Stone shall return to its rightful owner.

 Thorin Oakenshield.

Lord Dáin,

At long last our people are avenged: the worm is evicted and Erebor is ours. Come and see it, Dáin; see the blanket of gold in which we smothered Smaug the Terrible ere he met his end. Bring with you your bards and minstrels and let us compose a new song: ‘The Ballad of the Toy-makers and the Merchants!’

Thorin ii, son of Thráin.

Lord Dáin,

So it begins, the birds descend: the Lake-town lackwits insist on remuneration, I might have aided them had they not so soon enlisted an army of wood-elves to press their claim. The starlight grubbers are upon my doorstep but these I will not entertain; lest of course it is in like manner to which King Prig and his heir forcibly and unjustly entertained my company and I not long since prior: behind bars!

The King under the Mountain.

“Hang him! Axe him! Make him suffer!” demand several onlookers.

“What say you to this!” says Wãelyn to Legolas.

“To which: the hanging, the axing or the suffering?” he answers amid much uproar and general incredulity.

“The Frequentery will hold its peace…” insists Wãelyn; “The Bidden will curb all glibness and I will have his answer!”

“You refer to the letters just read aloud?” clarifies the elf.

“I do!”

“I have naught in those sheets save for a thinly veiled insult…”

“Read between the lines: tell us of your encounters with Thorin!”

“Very well…” begins Legolas. “Thorin and his company had become ensnared in a giant-spider nest and were fighting their way out, when my division first came upon them. They must have strayed from all known pathways to become thus straightened. However, our greater forces purged that colony of monstrous pests which had been…”

Wãelyn interjects, “You say ‘my division’ meaning that you were in command?”

“Correct!”

“Hmm… so this was not a rescue of dwarves but rather a vermin-control exercise where by some strange chance your company and Thorin’s momentarily fought a common foe?”

“Correct!” repeats the elf.

“So the bugs were squashed: Continue!”

Legolas takes pause to consider his response…

Ffodor speaks gravely, “We come to the truth at last, the Bidden is lost for words; no quick witted retort in light of facts that now lead to the inevitable end. We know Thorin and his company were detained with prejudice by the Woodlanders, we have the evidence of the letters; there is also the testimony of he whom it was that gave the very command to…”

“I believe it was upon me to continue…” puts in the elf.

He is overridden, “HE whom it was that gave the very command to seize our beloved king…”

Legolas defies him again, “So this is what is meant by the inevitable end!?”

“OUR BELOVED KING:” insists the dwarf, “Whom it was His Father that had turned his back upon our kin in the gravest hour of need!”

“I am standing trial for my father too?”

Rising suddenly, Wãelyn slaps down on the board with a mighty thud: “You are the one stood before us, and the only other apt to represent his house. You may continue if you wish…”  

“It is true, I apprehended this party of dwarves! In my military capacity I did everything necessary to ensure that  my father’s orders were carried out.”

“And his orders were?”

“To imprison them!”

“And release them when?”

“No such command was given: they escaped!”

“How was that?”  

“They secreted themselves in barrels and floated downriver to Lake-town,” explains Legolas; “With hindsight I surmise that Mr. Baggins assisted in this endeavour since we knew not then of his part in this…”

“The resourceful Mr. Baggins!”

“Quite so…”

Wãelyn sinks back into his chair, blank faced with his hands loosely cradling their opposing elbows: “Hmm… The Mete has not heard any reasons for your prolonged encampment on the borders of these lands: indeed upon this rests the validity of the charges against you! How do you respond?”  

Presently, a brassy note reverbs mightily through the hall by way of the horns beside the entrance. The door creaks slowly open revealing two figures, notable in their differences; the taller clad in grey advances with the aid of a staff, allowing his tiny companion to keep pace as they take the long walk of the accusing eyes.

At length Wãelyn speaks, “Not casually do the Horns of Juris sound during session, Gandalf the Grey; the Branch and this form will hear the cause of it!”

“Indeed, no casual matter at all!” says the wizard who mounts the platform to stand beside Legolas, the hobbit refrains and waits behind: “Much has occurred these last days since the battle; I carry a document of importance, a North-east Accord, if you like...”

“What is that to this hearing?” inquires Wãelyn, gesturing to have it: Wylenhin accommodates him as Gandalf waits.   

“It matters much, Sirs!” says the wizard at length, “Erebor and the Woodland Realm have pacted together with the Lake Town Men to rebuild Dale and renovate the waterways of Esgaroth. This means employment of all kinds for all kindreds; surely wine and ale will flow freely once more…”

The gallery combusts with applause; not even Wãelyn’s glower can stop it, but he remains patient holding up a forefinger to stay his colleagues until the clapping abates: “I tire of speeches in place of answers and I say again, what is that to this hearing?”

“I am sure by now you have verified the seal of the King under the Mountain and noted the signatories in front of you…”

“I have!”

“As you can see this declaration is to be sent to all regional authorities of peoples concerned. Perhaps an adjournment is in order whilst you peruse the document...” suggests the wizard.

“Agreed!” says Wãelyn.

“Perhaps too, my friend here might have his effects returned to him as you deliberate!” adds Gandalf.

The Branch of Juris assents to this amid his fellows’ habitual snippy discontent: “We shall have the truth in this!” he tells them; and to the wizard he says, “I should also like to speak with you separately, that goes for your little friend malingering behind your cloak tails too!”

“Of course!” says Gandalf with a courteous nod.

“But tell me, Gandalf,” asks Wãelyn ere they retire to chambers, “How is it that you came thither in person and did not send a herald, or nary a raven?”

“Some birds fly higher than ravens and can see much more clearly!”

[theguineapig3]

Tales Whump Week Day 1: Wounds

“Silent Treatment”

Tales of Symphonia Words: 1786 Characters: Kratos Aurion, Dirk, Lloyd Irving (mentioned)

Kratos didn't know which hurt worse- the wounds he sustained in his fight with Lloyd, or the suffocating silence he endured as Lloyd’s real father patched him up.

“You don't have to do this. As an angel, my body will heal quickly, even without treatment.”

Kratos’ words had been spoken almost as a plea when Dirk appeared with a first aid kit. Lloyd and his companions had left to confront Mithos, and Kratos’ attempt to leave and recover somewhere solitary was thwarted by his inability to stand without pain. It shot through his abdomen like receiving a punch, and he’d doubled over onto the table. The next thing he knew, he had been carried upstairs and laid out on Lloyd’s bed. Dirk was shuffling through his medical supplies, the smell of medicinal herbs filling the room and clouding Kratos’ thoughts. Dirk was saying something about internal hemorrhage and types of poultices that could help with the bruising. The scientific name Arnica unalaschensis was thrown around, and if Kratos’ thoughts hadn't been so muddled, he might have been able to identify exactly what the plant was. But with the pain, the thick haze of herbal smells, and the burning humiliation of being in such a vulnerable position, it was all he could do just to protest.

Dirk considered Kratos’ words for only a moment before he shook his head.

“Aye, that mebbe true, but Dwarven Vow 2 says ne’er abandon someain in need. Sae you’re stuck here wi’ me until yer wounds are healed.”

And for an entire week, that was it.

Besides a few single words here and there as instructions, Dirk didn't say a thing. At the beginning, Kratos didn't feel like making conversation, so he didn't mind the silence. But as the week continued, it became clear that Dirk wasn't staying quiet out of respect toward his patient. Kratos tried to catch his eyes, but Dirk was avoiding eye contact, and when their eyes did meet, the look Dirk gave him held none of the friendliness he usually expressed in his oft-quoted Dwarven Vows. It felt more along the lines of a lesser-known vow- 29, beware the anger of a patient man. Kratos didn't know Dirk well enough to assess his usual patience levels, but anyone could see right now that the Dwarf was angry.

Kratos could only think of one reason for that anger.

Lloyd.

But what was it about Lloyd? Was Dirk angry about Kratos’ initial betrayal of Lloyd and his friends? About his connection with Cruxis and the Desians? About his lies and secrecy to prevent his son from learning the truth about their relationship?

Or… was Dirk afraid of losing Lloyd now that his birth-father was in the picture?

The thought was chilling, and Kratos didn't want to dwell on it. But left with no other human interaction, the thought ran through his mind over and over until eventually he couldn't take it anymore.

“Dirk, I know you don't want to talk to me, but there’s something I need to say.”

No longer bedridden at that point, Kratos came downstairs for meals, usually eating in silence at the same table where he knew Lloyd had grown up eating. That day’s dinner was waiting for him as usual, and Dirk was at the hearth cleaning up the soiled dishes. At the sound of Kratos’ voice, he turned and looked up.

“Eat yer supper first. Ye donnae want yer food tae get cold.”

“I don't mind. This is important.”

Still holding a plate in one hand and a sponge in the other, Dirk stopped scrubbing to consider the statement. After a moment’s pause, he sighed and returned the plate to the pot of sudsy water. “Alrecht, what dae ye want?”

Kratos took a deep breath and plunged forward. “I can tell that you're angry with me. I don't begrudge you that; you have plenty of perfectly justified reasons to feel that way. If it's because of my involvement with Cruxis- with the Desians- I understand. If it’s for my betrayal of Lloyd and his friends, I understand. If it’s for my absence most of Lloyd’s life, I understand that too. But I want you to understand, I'm not here to take your job. You are Lloyd’s father. You have been for the past fourteen years and you always will be. I don't intend to come between you and Lloyd. He already has a father, and a good one at that. He doesn't need me.” Kratos stopped to catch his breath, lowering his gaze to the floor. “Once I’m fully healed, I'm going to leave you and Lloyd to live your lives without my interference. So if the thought of losing Lloyd is what’s troubling you, I want you to know that he’s yours. You have nothing to be angry about.”

There was a pause. Kratos felt his nervousness pricking against his skin, keeping his eyes glued to the floor. He had to force his head back up when Dirk spoke again, and immediately regretted it once he saw the fierceness in the Dwarf’s glare.

“Nothin’ tae be angry about? Nothin’?! This is exactly why I’m sae angry with ye! Ye donnae get it at all!”

“Wha-?”

Dirk approached Kratos, pointing an accusatory finger up at him. “I know I've nae been a perfect father tae him, but I believe Lloyd has grown intae a fine lad and I'm proud ay him. What is it about him that bothers ye sae much? Dae ye ‘hink he’s nae smart enough? That he’s tae reckless? Is he tae much of a goody-two-shoes fer yer likin’?”

Kratos took a step back, his brow furrowing in confusion. “What are you talking about? I adore Lloyd-”

“Then why are ye sae keen tae be rid ay him?”

The words cut like a knife. “Rid of him?” Kratos repeated. “I don't understand.”

Dirk stared for another tense moment before turning away and releasing a long sigh, his shoulders relaxing as if he were breathing out his anger and frustration.

“Ye… keep abandonin’ him. Ye left him behind, ye betrayed him, ye appeared only tae gie cryptic clues an’ then disappear again like it ne’er happened… ye were ready tae up an’ die on him. An’ now that he’s forgiven ye for all that ye’ve dain tae him, ye’re jist gonnae leave him?”

Kratos’ mouth hung open as he processed Dirk’s accusations. Lloyd had evidently told his dad more about his journey than Kratos realized. None of what Dirk had said was false, at least in terms of what had happened. But…

“Giving up my life was the only way to ensure that Lloyd’s group could make a pact with Origin,” Kratos explained. “I was trying to protect Lloyd, to aid him in his quest to create the kind of world he’s striving for. He’s worked so hard. He deserves that. I'm proud of him.”

“Bit nae proud enough tae stay with him?”

Once again, the room filled with tense silence. In contrast to the past few days of little to no eye contact from Dirk, Kratos now found himself under the full force of the Dwarf’s stare. It was scathing enough, but what really got to him was the realization that this had been the source of Dirk’s behavior the whole time. He hadn't been worried that Kratos would take Lloyd away from him- in fact, the opposite was true. Dirk wanted Kratos to be part of Lloyd’s life.

The fact that he had assumed otherwise sent a pang of guilt through Kratos’ chest.

“Dirk, I… I'm so sorry.”

“Sorry fer what?” Dirk asked, and Kratos realized he should have clarified.

“I'm sorry for… for thinking so poorly of you as to imagine you were jealous. You brought me into your home, took care of me even though I can heal on my own, fed me even though I don’t need to eat… I knew you were angry, but instead of asking you what was wrong, I let my wild fantasies take over.”

“I’m sorry tae. I let my anger an’ frustration gie th’ better ay me, an’ I treated ye poorly. I should hae been honest frae th’ start, scolded ye properly once ye were awake enough tae understand.” Dirk looked away. “I ken that Lloyd is a strong lad. I donnae want tae gie in th’ way ay his quest to save th’ worlds. I’m nae a fighter, I can’t gang wi’ him an’ his group. Stayin’ here an’ supportin’ him at my forge is the best thing I can dae fer him. Bit I’ve grown sae used tae his presence around th’ house these past fourteen years, I wake up every mornin’ an’ th’ realization that I willnae see his smilin’ face o’ hear his voice makes me want tae turn back o’er an’ gang back tae sleep. I miss him, an’ it’s like an awful weight on my chest ‘at makes it hard tae breathe, hard tae move, hard tae dae anythin’. Ev’ry time he comes home, I hope an’ pray ‘at he’s back fer good. It’s a selfish, unrealistic fantasy, an’ I would ne’er say it out loud tae him. Bit you…”

Kratos took a step forward to close the gap between them. “...I had the chance to be with him,” he finished, “and I didn’t. I squandered opportunities that Lloyd’s real father would’ve done anything to have. It’s no wonder he’s so angry with me.”

There was a pause, and Dirk finally allowed himself to look at Kratos again. “Ye’re nae less his ‘real father’ than I am. Dwarven Vow 162,” he began, “th’ best time tae plant a tree was twenty years ago; th’ second-best time is now.”

He didn’t need to interpret the proverb for Kratos’ to understand what he was getting at. With a smile, Kratos turned back toward the table and took a seat in front of his plate. Dirk sat across from him, motioning toward the food.

“I told ye earlier, supper’ll get cold if ye donnae eat it now.”

Kratos looked down at the meal- a simple plate of potatoes and minced meat. He’d made it clear to Dirk early on that he didn't need the food, yet Dirk had cooked proper meals for him every day despite the animosity between them. Maybe it was because of his adherence to the Dwarven vows, or maybe it was because he missed cooking for Lloyd, or… maybe…

“You know,” Kratos began as he picked up his fork, “earlier I said that my angel abilities help me heal quickly, but these wounds seem particularly severe. I may not be fully healed for a while- until Lloyd gets back at the very least.”

For the first time that evening, Dirk cracked a smile.

“That’s tae bad. I guess ye’ll be stuck here ‘till then, huh?”

“I guess I will.”

[reginrokkr]

𝐂𝐗𝐕𝐈𝐈𝐋. I think that among all the AQ Dain has participated so far (including Caribert), Requiem of the Echoing Depths is the meatier one in terms of what we learn about him not solely by getting new information, but because we also see him being more emotional and on the edge in certain moments. Because of this, it'll be split in various parts.

✦ While this is something I mentioned in the past on brief occasions, it never fails to impress me that for all the tricks the Abyss Order can pull out of their sleeves and go as far as to even have the capability to corrupt the minds of former deities or creatures affiliated to gods, that every time Dain comes to corner strong opponents such as Abyss Heralds they just run away instead of trying their hand at capturing him or defeating him. I think that this is telling of how feared he is and that they probably think that it is for the best to escape than to face him, as most likely than not over the past 400-500 years they saw that he's an unwavering soul that can have his way against them.

✧ The premise that Abyss portals are an entire network instead of leading from one point to another of their desire is highly interesting to me and somehow reminiscent of what the Aranara can do by using their connection to the Ley Lines and using these as their own particular network. Considering that Ley Lines spread everywhere to sustain the world with the seven elements that come from Irminsul, it can be a really handful trick by itself to somehow counter the Abyss'. It would be interesting to give a thought of what exactly there is to make a network, some energy already existent or that they deposit somewhere or if they can go wherever they want arbitrarily without nothing that can be present there for them. Furthermore, based on Dain's experience of being bamboozled into reaching the Stormterror's lair, it's safe to assume that this place is of the Abyss Order interest.

✦ I won't go too deep into this one here as I did in other posts, but it's always painful to think that one of the reasons of the journey during the Cataclysm around Teyvat is to find his fate in a moment where he had lost everything he had and he doesn't know what to do.

✧ In the past I talked about the difference between the curse of immortality and the corruption (what turns people into Abyss monsters), but hearing Dain again saying that the environment of the Chasm soothes the effects of the curse laid by the gods confirms, once again, that this curse has ties to the Abyss and that the reason why it's soothing to linger in the depths of the Abyss is because of the influence of the sapphire nail Phanes dropped to mend the land from the Abyss during the Apocalypse, out of fear that the world would be destroyed otherwise.

✦ ◜For centuries, I have suffered daily from the curse that was laid upon me. But here... I suddenly feel a small amount of relief from this suffering. And right here, right now, I can feel my body sending a strong message to me... It is telling me, "stay".◞

This speaks volumes of the cruelty of the curse of immortality, about how much it hurts to be aware of the pain it causes day by day. At first I thought it would only be in a mental way, but later on during AQ: Caribert I came to the conclusion that it must also affect to the body given Chlothar's struggle to make a potion. The notion that Dain can find a place (potentially other places too where this soothing aura is present) where he feels relief is quite emotional to even think about, after all those centuries.

✧ ◜The curse of "immortality" denies death to those affected with it... and yet, it does not truly mean that they will never die. The body and the soul will continue to be eroded until they are virtually nonexistent, even if "death" is not the form that this erosion takes.◞

In a way, I can't help but think that while people who bear this curse can still die, they won't die in the typical way everyone thinks of first. Egeria might be a good example for this, even if she wasn't affected by this curse. While she's considered to have "died", her spirit or lingering energy still exists in the Realm of Farakhkert and still has such a manner of sentience that she can still suffer from the surrounding corrosion. So as Dain explains, the soul and body become virtually nonexistent, but there will be something there that will continue to exist. If I'm not mistaken, something like this is addressed in Hu Tao's SQ in which she explains that her family's duty began with the existence of something left behind by death during the war and the need for someone to cleanse it out or taking it somewhere else, lest those remnants cause illnesses to the living.

[newseveryhourly]

Congressional Republicans have largely rejected what John Bolton has to say in his newly released memoir about his time working for Donald Trump. What’s less clear is whether they’ll reject Bolton’s money.Bolton, the ultra-hawkish former national security adviser to Trump, is a longtime fixture in Republican politics, and for years he’s used a personal political action committee to direct campaign money to politicians whose values align with his own. Since the 2014 election cycle, Bolton’s PAC has doled out $1.6 million to a number of sitting GOP lawmakers. Two out of every five current GOP senators have cashed a check from Bolton at some point in the last six years, and dozens of U.S. House members, former lawmakers, and candidates have, too. For the 2020 election, Bolton has backed three GOP senators up for re-election—Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Cory Gardner (R-CO), and Thom Tillis (R-NC)—as well as two House members, Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Lee Zeldin (R-NY). Each has received the maximum $10,000 contribution from his PAC.In addition to those contributions, Bolton’s sister super PAC ran a handful of Facebook ads in late 2019, seemingly designed to build up its voter contact list with petitions to “defend Ambassador John Bolton” from “the radicalized liberal Left.” But both the PAC and super PAC have remained largely dormant so far this year.If Bolton decides to reactivate his political operation, though, it will have a significant war chest at its disposal. All told, the PAC and super PAC are still sitting on roughly $2.5 million in cash, largely raised during previous election cycles. Bolton’s plans for the two groups and the substantial sums they still command aren’t yet clear. A spokesperson for the PACs did not respond to questions about their activities going forward.Bolton Says Jared Kushner Was the Most Important Person in the White HouseWhen Bolton’s book dropped and alleged that Trump had, among other things, attempted to persuade Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him win re-election by buying U.S. exports from farm states, Tillis told reporters that he agreed with the blistering response from Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who said Bolton was “unpatriotic” for putting his testimony in a book instead of under oath during Trump’s impeachment trial. “I got a long reading list ahead of me, and it’s not going to go to the top of the stack,” Tillis said of Bolton’s book. Cotton, meanwhile, said on Fox News that he found Bolton’s claims to be “simply implausible.”All five of Bolton’s current endorsees for this election cycle were contacted by The Daily Beast; none indicated they’d return Bolton’s money. Asked directly on Capitol Hill if he’d considered returning Bolton’s contributions, Cotton declined to comment. A spokesman for his campaign later told The Daily Beast in an email, “We’re keeping the contribution and will be using it to run ads against Joe Biden for his failure to stand up to the woke liberal mob.”The apparent reluctance among Republican politicians to cut all ties with Bolton, especially supportive ones, may speak to the power of lingering good feelings toward the GOP stalwart, even as he derides the leader of their party as unfit for the presidency. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), who took $10,000 from Bolton’s PAC in 2016, said he’d take a check from him again. “He's been a valued adviser on foreign policy for a long time and he's helped a lot of Republicans running for office,” Blunt told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. “He established a PAC just to do that. And I suspect that will continue to be the case. “Per federal campaign finance records, however, Bolton’s PAC has been quiet since Sept. 23, 2019, two weeks after he left the White House on poor terms with the president. On that day, the PAC dropped $50,000 to support its five initial endorsees for 2020, but no disbursements have been made since. As recently as May 2020, the PAC has continued to spend money on overhead such as fundraising expenses, rent, and payroll. Bolton’s super PAC has been spending money on similar things through March, though it has not directed any money toward ads or other communication yet for the 2020 cycle.If holding onto Bolton’s money hasn’t proven thorny for the Republicans who already have it, it’s unclear what might happen if he decides to spread the wealth to more candidates, just as he has in the last three election cycles.In particular, several of the candidates Bolton has supported in the past find themselves in tough elections in which some extra dollars would be welcome—but Bolton’s imprimatur might not. Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ), for example, has long been one of Bolton’s favorites. His PAC has given $35,000 to her campaigns since 2014—that year, her successful bid to unseat a Democratic House incumbent was actually the first that Bolton’s PAC officially endorsed. McSally, a former fighter pilot and a strident hawk, has previously been effusive in her praise for the former national security adviser, calling Bolton a “true patriot” in 2018.But McSally, who’s seriously at risk of losing the seat she was appointed to after Sen. John McCain’s death, has hugged Trump closely. Her campaign did not respond to a question from The Daily Beast about whether she’d return any of Bolton’s money or welcome it again in the future.Tillis, whose re-election battle in North Carolina could be among the hardest-fought in the country, has received $20,000 from Bolton over the years. In 2014, Bolton’s super PAC spent $1.3 million on ads boosting Tillis’ first successful bid for Senate. Two other top Democratic targets, Sens. David Perdue (R-GA) and Steve Daines (R-MT), also received Bolton contributions during their 2014 campaigns. Another current Bolton-supported candidate, Zeldin, is a marginal Democratic target in the House but maintains close ties with Trump and Trumpworld. He was a vocal defender of the president during the impeachment inquiry, and traveled with Trump on Air Force One to his recent rally in Oklahoma. A frequent tweeter, Zeldin has not mentioned Bolton’s allegations since they were revealed on June 17. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2A14T80

[saadullah-faisal-world]

Congressional Republicans have largely rejected what John Bolton has to say in his newly released memoir about his time working for Donald Trump. What’s less clear is whether they’ll reject Bolton’s money.Bolton, the ultra-hawkish former national security adviser to Trump, is a longtime fixture in Republican politics, and for years he’s used a personal political action committee to direct campaign money to politicians whose values align with his own. Since the 2014 election cycle, Bolton’s PAC has doled out $1.6 million to a number of sitting GOP lawmakers. Two out of every five current GOP senators have cashed a check from Bolton at some point in the last six years, and dozens of U.S. House members, former lawmakers, and candidates have, too. For the 2020 election, Bolton has backed three GOP senators up for re-election—Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Cory Gardner (R-CO), and Thom Tillis (R-NC)—as well as two House members, Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Lee Zeldin (R-NY). Each has received the maximum $10,000 contribution from his PAC.In addition to those contributions, Bolton’s sister super PAC ran a handful of Facebook ads in late 2019, seemingly designed to build up its voter contact list with petitions to “defend Ambassador John Bolton” from “the radicalized liberal Left.” But both the PAC and super PAC have remained largely dormant so far this year.If Bolton decides to reactivate his political operation, though, it will have a significant war chest at its disposal. All told, the PAC and super PAC are still sitting on roughly $2.5 million in cash, largely raised during previous election cycles. Bolton’s plans for the two groups and the substantial sums they still command aren’t yet clear. A spokesperson for the PACs did not respond to questions about their activities going forward.Bolton Says Jared Kushner Was the Most Important Person in the White HouseWhen Bolton’s book dropped and alleged that Trump had, among other things, attempted to persuade Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him win re-election by buying U.S. exports from farm states, Tillis told reporters that he agreed with the blistering response from Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who said Bolton was “unpatriotic” for putting his testimony in a book instead of under oath during Trump’s impeachment trial. “I got a long reading list ahead of me, and it’s not going to go to the top of the stack,” Tillis said of Bolton’s book. Cotton, meanwhile, said on Fox News that he found Bolton’s claims to be “simply implausible.”All five of Bolton’s current endorsees for this election cycle were contacted by The Daily Beast; none indicated they’d return Bolton’s money. Asked directly on Capitol Hill if he’d considered returning Bolton’s contributions, Cotton declined to comment. A spokesman for his campaign later told The Daily Beast in an email, “We’re keeping the contribution and will be using it to run ads against Joe Biden for his failure to stand up to the woke liberal mob.”The apparent reluctance among Republican politicians to cut all ties with Bolton, especially supportive ones, may speak to the power of lingering good feelings toward the GOP stalwart, even as he derides the leader of their party as unfit for the presidency. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), who took $10,000 from Bolton’s PAC in 2016, said he’d take a check from him again. “He's been a valued adviser on foreign policy for a long time and he's helped a lot of Republicans running for office,” Blunt told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. “He established a PAC just to do that. And I suspect that will continue to be the case. “Per federal campaign finance records, however, Bolton’s PAC has been quiet since Sept. 23, 2019, two weeks after he left the White House on poor terms with the president. On that day, the PAC dropped $50,000 to support its five initial endorsees for 2020, but no disbursements have been made since. As recently as May 2020, the PAC has continued to spend money on overhead such as fundraising expenses, rent, and payroll. Bolton’s super PAC has been spending money on similar things through March, though it has not directed any money toward ads or other communication yet for the 2020 cycle.If holding onto Bolton’s money hasn’t proven thorny for the Republicans who already have it, it’s unclear what might happen if he decides to spread the wealth to more candidates, just as he has in the last three election cycles.In particular, several of the candidates Bolton has supported in the past find themselves in tough elections in which some extra dollars would be welcome—but Bolton’s imprimatur might not. Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ), for example, has long been one of Bolton’s favorites. His PAC has given $35,000 to her campaigns since 2014—that year, her successful bid to unseat a Democratic House incumbent was actually the first that Bolton’s PAC officially endorsed. McSally, a former fighter pilot and a strident hawk, has previously been effusive in her praise for the former national security adviser, calling Bolton a “true patriot” in 2018.But McSally, who’s seriously at risk of losing the seat she was appointed to after Sen. John McCain’s death, has hugged Trump closely. Her campaign did not respond to a question from The Daily Beast about whether she’d return any of Bolton’s money or welcome it again in the future.Tillis, whose re-election battle in North Carolina could be among the hardest-fought in the country, has received $20,000 from Bolton over the years. In 2014, Bolton’s super PAC spent $1.3 million on ads boosting Tillis’ first successful bid for Senate. Two other top Democratic targets, Sens. David Perdue (R-GA) and Steve Daines (R-MT), also received Bolton contributions during their 2014 campaigns. Another current Bolton-supported candidate, Zeldin, is a marginal Democratic target in the House but maintains close ties with Trump and Trumpworld. He was a vocal defender of the president during the impeachment inquiry, and traveled with Trump on Air Force One to his recent rally in Oklahoma. A frequent tweeter, Zeldin has not mentioned Bolton’s allegations since they were revealed on June 17. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2A14T80

[orendrasingh]

Congressional Republicans have largely rejected what John Bolton has to say in his newly released memoir about his time working for Donald Trump. What’s less clear is whether they’ll reject Bolton’s money.Bolton, the ultra-hawkish former national security adviser to Trump, is a longtime fixture in Republican politics, and for years he’s used a personal political action committee to direct campaign money to politicians whose values align with his own. Since the 2014 election cycle, Bolton’s PAC has doled out $1.6 million to a number of sitting GOP lawmakers. Two out of every five current GOP senators have cashed a check from Bolton at some point in the last six years, and dozens of U.S. House members, former lawmakers, and candidates have, too. For the 2020 election, Bolton has backed three GOP senators up for re-election—Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Cory Gardner (R-CO), and Thom Tillis (R-NC)—as well as two House members, Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Lee Zeldin (R-NY). Each has received the maximum $10,000 contribution from his PAC.In addition to those contributions, Bolton’s sister super PAC ran a handful of Facebook ads in late 2019, seemingly designed to build up its voter contact list with petitions to “defend Ambassador John Bolton” from “the radicalized liberal Left.” But both the PAC and super PAC have remained largely dormant so far this year.If Bolton decides to reactivate his political operation, though, it will have a significant war chest at its disposal. All told, the PAC and super PAC are still sitting on roughly $2.5 million in cash, largely raised during previous election cycles. Bolton’s plans for the two groups and the substantial sums they still command aren’t yet clear. A spokesperson for the PACs did not respond to questions about their activities going forward.Bolton Says Jared Kushner Was the Most Important Person in the White HouseWhen Bolton’s book dropped and alleged that Trump had, among other things, attempted to persuade Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him win re-election by buying U.S. exports from farm states, Tillis told reporters that he agreed with the blistering response from Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who said Bolton was “unpatriotic” for putting his testimony in a book instead of under oath during Trump’s impeachment trial. “I got a long reading list ahead of me, and it’s not going to go to the top of the stack,” Tillis said of Bolton’s book. Cotton, meanwhile, said on Fox News that he found Bolton’s claims to be “simply implausible.”All five of Bolton’s current endorsees for this election cycle were contacted by The Daily Beast; none indicated they’d return Bolton’s money. Asked directly on Capitol Hill if he’d considered returning Bolton’s contributions, Cotton declined to comment. A spokesman for his campaign later told The Daily Beast in an email, “We’re keeping the contribution and will be using it to run ads against Joe Biden for his failure to stand up to the woke liberal mob.”The apparent reluctance among Republican politicians to cut all ties with Bolton, especially supportive ones, may speak to the power of lingering good feelings toward the GOP stalwart, even as he derides the leader of their party as unfit for the presidency. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), who took $10,000 from Bolton’s PAC in 2016, said he’d take a check from him again. “He's been a valued adviser on foreign policy for a long time and he's helped a lot of Republicans running for office,” Blunt told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. “He established a PAC just to do that. And I suspect that will continue to be the case. “Per federal campaign finance records, however, Bolton’s PAC has been quiet since Sept. 23, 2019, two weeks after he left the White House on poor terms with the president. On that day, the PAC dropped $50,000 to support its five initial endorsees for 2020, but no disbursements have been made since. As recently as May 2020, the PAC has continued to spend money on overhead such as fundraising expenses, rent, and payroll. Bolton’s super PAC has been spending money on similar things through March, though it has not directed any money toward ads or other communication yet for the 2020 cycle.If holding onto Bolton’s money hasn’t proven thorny for the Republicans who already have it, it’s unclear what might happen if he decides to spread the wealth to more candidates, just as he has in the last three election cycles.In particular, several of the candidates Bolton has supported in the past find themselves in tough elections in which some extra dollars would be welcome—but Bolton’s imprimatur might not. Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ), for example, has long been one of Bolton’s favorites. His PAC has given $35,000 to her campaigns since 2014—that year, her successful bid to unseat a Democratic House incumbent was actually the first that Bolton’s PAC officially endorsed. McSally, a former fighter pilot and a strident hawk, has previously been effusive in her praise for the former national security adviser, calling Bolton a “true patriot” in 2018.But McSally, who’s seriously at risk of losing the seat she was appointed to after Sen. John McCain’s death, has hugged Trump closely. Her campaign did not respond to a question from The Daily Beast about whether she’d return any of Bolton’s money or welcome it again in the future.Tillis, whose re-election battle in North Carolina could be among the hardest-fought in the country, has received $20,000 from Bolton over the years. In 2014, Bolton’s super PAC spent $1.3 million on ads boosting Tillis’ first successful bid for Senate. Two other top Democratic targets, Sens. David Perdue (R-GA) and Steve Daines (R-MT), also received Bolton contributions during their 2014 campaigns. Another current Bolton-supported candidate, Zeldin, is a marginal Democratic target in the House but maintains close ties with Trump and Trumpworld. He was a vocal defender of the president during the impeachment inquiry, and traveled with Trump on Air Force One to his recent rally in Oklahoma. A frequent tweeter, Zeldin has not mentioned Bolton’s allegations since they were revealed on June 17. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2A14T80

[lorajackson]

John Bolton is a Pariah, But Will Republicans Still Take His Cash?

Congressional Republicans have largely rejected what John Bolton has to say in his newly released memoir about his time working for Donald Trump. What’s less clear is whether they’ll reject Bolton’s money.Bolton, the ultra-hawkish former national security adviser to Trump, is a longtime fixture in Republican politics, and for years he’s used a personal political action committee to direct campaign money to politicians whose values align with his own. Since the 2014 election cycle, Bolton’s PAC has doled out $1.6 million to a number of sitting GOP lawmakers. Two out of every five current GOP senators have cashed a check from Bolton at some point in the last six years, and dozens of U.S. House members, former lawmakers, and candidates have, too. For the 2020 election, Bolton has backed three GOP senators up for re-election—Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Cory Gardner (R-CO), and Thom Tillis (R-NC)—as well as two House members, Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Lee Zeldin (R-NY). Each has received the maximum $10,000 contribution from his PAC.In addition to those contributions, Bolton’s sister super PAC ran a handful of Facebook ads in late 2019, seemingly designed to build up its voter contact list with petitions to “defend Ambassador John Bolton” from “the radicalized liberal Left.” But both the PAC and super PAC have remained largely dormant so far this year.If Bolton decides to reactivate his political operation, though, it will have a significant war chest at its disposal. All told, the PAC and super PAC are still sitting on roughly $2.5 million in cash, largely raised during previous election cycles. Bolton’s plans for the two groups and the substantial sums they still command aren’t yet clear. A spokesperson for the PACs did not respond to questions about their activities going forward.Bolton Says Jared Kushner Was the Most Important Person in the White HouseWhen Bolton’s book dropped and alleged that Trump had, among other things, attempted to persuade Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him win re-election by buying U.S. exports from farm states, Tillis told reporters that he agreed with the blistering response from Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who said Bolton was “unpatriotic” for putting his testimony in a book instead of under oath during Trump’s impeachment trial. “I got a long reading list ahead of me, and it’s not going to go to the top of the stack,” Tillis said of Bolton’s book. Cotton, meanwhile, said on Fox News that he found Bolton’s claims to be “simply implausible.”All five of Bolton’s current endorsees for this election cycle were contacted by The Daily Beast; none indicated they’d return Bolton’s money. Asked directly on Capitol Hill if he’d considered returning Bolton’s contributions, Cotton declined to comment. A spokesman for his campaign later told The Daily Beast in an email, “We’re keeping the contribution and will be using it to run ads against Joe Biden for his failure to stand up to the woke liberal mob.”The apparent reluctance among Republican politicians to cut all ties with Bolton, especially supportive ones, may speak to the power of lingering good feelings toward the GOP stalwart, even as he derides the leader of their party as unfit for the presidency. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), who took $10,000 from Bolton’s PAC in 2016, said he’d take a check from him again. “He’s been a valued adviser on foreign policy for a long time and he’s helped a lot of Republicans running for office,” Blunt told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. “He established a PAC just to do that. And I suspect that will continue to be the case. “Per federal campaign finance records, however, Bolton’s PAC has been quiet since Sept. 23, 2019, two weeks after he left the White House on poor terms with the president. On that day, the PAC dropped $50,000 to support its five initial endorsees for 2020, but no disbursements have been made since. As recently as May 2020, the PAC has continued to spend money on overhead such as fundraising expenses, rent, and payroll. Bolton’s super PAC has been spending money on similar things through March, though it has not directed any money toward ads or other communication yet for the 2020 cycle.If holding onto Bolton’s money hasn’t proven thorny for the Republicans who already have it, it’s unclear what might happen if he decides to spread the wealth to more candidates, just as he has in the last three election cycles.In particular, several of the candidates Bolton has supported in the past find themselves in tough elections in which some extra dollars would be welcome—but Bolton’s imprimatur might not. Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ), for example, has long been one of Bolton’s favorites. His PAC has given $35,000 to her campaigns since 2014—that year, her successful bid to unseat a Democratic House incumbent was actually the first that Bolton’s PAC officially endorsed. McSally, a former fighter pilot and a strident hawk, has previously been effusive in her praise for the former national security adviser, calling Bolton a “true patriot” in 2018.But McSally, who’s seriously at risk of losing the seat she was appointed to after Sen. John McCain’s death, has hugged Trump closely. Her campaign did not respond to a question from The Daily Beast about whether she’d return any of Bolton’s money or welcome it again in the future.Tillis, whose re-election battle in North Carolina could be among the hardest-fought in the country, has received $20,000 from Bolton over the years. In 2014, Bolton’s super PAC spent $1.3 million on ads boosting Tillis’ first successful bid for Senate. Two other top Democratic targets, Sens. David Perdue (R-GA) and Steve Daines (R-MT), also received Bolton contributions during their 2014 campaigns. Another current Bolton-supported candidate, Zeldin, is a marginal Democratic target in the House but maintains close ties with Trump and Trumpworld. He was a vocal defender of the president during the impeachment inquiry, and traveled with Trump on Air Force One to his recent rally in Oklahoma. A frequent tweeter, Zeldin has not mentioned Bolton’s allegations since they were revealed on June 17. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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